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THE
HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF BRANT,
coMTAiioira
A History of the County ; its Townships. Cities, Towns, Schools,
Churches, etc.; General and Local Statistics ; Portraits of
Early settlers and Prominent Men ; History of the
Six Nation Indians and Captain Joseph Brant
(THAYENDANEGEA); HISTORY OF THE DOMINION
OF Canada, Miscellaneous Hatters,
ETC, ETC, ETC. ^ .' .
" - • ■•
( • •
» m
TORONTO :
WARNER. BEERS & CO.
" 1883.
PREFACE.
surmounting many unlooked-for obstacles and overeoming
spected difficalties, the publishers are enabled to present to
public the History of the County of Brant, which has been
reparation for the past ten months. To procure the ma-
ils for its compilation, many hundred pages of manuscript
written records have been explored, and every other avenue
eliable information has been diligently searched. He who
sets to find the work entirely free from errors or defects has
e knowledge of the difiBcolties attending the preparation of
)rk of this kind. So numerous are the sources from which
facts have been drawn, that no attempt has been made to
cate them in the foot-notes. The data has been culled, item
by item, from sources widely scattered — in books, pamphlets,
periodicals and newspaper files ; in manuscripts, church records, court lecords
and justice's dockets ; in local laws ; the charters, mftmiftlR and minutes of
sodeties ; in private letters, journals and diaries, especially of intelligent ob-
aervers ; in f unend sermons, obituary notices and inscriptions on tombstones ;
in the memory of living persons, of what they have themselves witnessed ; and
last, and least valuable of all, traditions where they could not be supported by
some record or ctmtemporaneous document ; these have been received with the
utmost caution. In matters of doubtful authenticity, the writers have assumed
OS a guiding principle that the record of a false statement as the truth would
be a greater evil than the loea of a true statement
The publiahers have been fortunate in securing the services of efficient and
painstaking historians, who have been greatly assisted by many citizens of the
IV PREFACE.
county. The Dominion History was prepared by Dr. C; P. Mnlvaney, of
Toronto. The history of the county and county seat was prepared by the
publishers' staff of historians, with local assistance. The township historiea
were prepared by Dr. C. P. Mulvaney, John Bingham, Esq., George A. Baker,.
Esq., and G. A. Graham, Esq. The biographical sketches were prepared by
efficient writers from notes collected by the solicitors, and a copy of each
biography has been sent by mail to the several subjects, giving to each an
opportunity to correct any errors that might have crept into their sketches.
Where the copies were not returned, the publishers were obliged to print the
originala
Acknowledgments for valuable services rendered are due to M. J. Kelly,,
LLR, M.D., Wm T. Harris, M.D., Prof. A. H. Dymond, T. S. Shenston, James.
Wilkes, A. Robertson, of the Bank of British North America, Rev. William
Cochrane, D.D., James Woodyatt, City Clerk, Rev. F. R Beattie, BJ).; to the
editors of the Expositor, Courier and Tdegram, for the use of their files, and
to the city and county officials, and to other citizens, all of whom most gene-
rously assisted to the full extent of their ability.
In submitting their work to the public, the publishers trust that it will be
received in that generous spirit which is gratified*at honest and conscientious,
efforts, and not in that captious spirit which refuses to be satisfied short of
unattainable perfection.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
Tbe
TIN
PAa
IMiliiniH^-Prthiiloric 1
" OokMy. 4
Waw 9
of OuMdft 19
dnriBfr the Ameiieui BtfTolntlon. S7
it of Bogltah-cpaddng Ouuuia 8S
PAem
The War of 1812 88
nie RunilT OompMt 44
Madronrie^a Bovolt 48
Lord 89d«nhaiB'a Miiiiatry 5S
BtatiayoB. er
Chorchea, JooroaUim, etc 76
PART II.
INDIAN HISTORY.
Caft. JonpB BaAXT (I&atiiida]imba>—
Brant aa a Wanior.
Ch
Wi
mBt'advfl
85
87
89
90
96
114
CMi. Gampbell'a Trip from magara to the Oraod
RiTer m
Bnuit*a Genealogy— DomeeOo Belatlona ISO
BrantaFreemaaon 182
John Brant (Ahyottwaeirbs) 188
The Biant Memorial • 141
The Six Nation Indiana 146
PART III.
COUNTY OF BRANT AND CITY OF BRANTFORD.
Our. L—IatrodiietorT— Geoloslcal-Fonnatton— Pint
PkoHrional Ooondl Proceedlnga, 1862-Addre8B at
Fbat Meeting of ObantyOonndl 149-162
Cajkf. IL—Oovrnty Boildfaaaa— Tomer and Sinon mat-
tar—fteeentatiop of Am. 168-178
Cbmf. IIL— Pioneer Ufe^-Cbaring the I^nd— Dwell-
lafa—HoraabadtThtTel— Character of the Pioneera
-Ar|y Settiement— Pioneer Biognphiea 174-188
Chat. IT.— Omnty Oflkera and Repreaentativea to
Comity Gouneil 189-194
CtaAP. v.— Bdnoatiooal— Inatitatefor theBUad— ToniMr
LadieirGolleKeof Brantford ^US-204
Ckaf. TL— The rkeaa Medieal Profearion— Beneh and
Bar , 806-216
Our. VIL— A^rteiiltiiral Bodetiee— Bow Park FWm—
Fine ProTindal BzhiUtion held in Braatford,
1867. 216-888
CIU9. ym.— TownahIp Statlitica Aawaauient RoUa—
OBnanaoflSSl— UatofPtoatOffloea. 289-249
CITY OF BRANTFORD. '
Chaf. L— Location— Incorporation— The Award— Town
CounoUlora and Offidala— City Aldermen and Ofli-
dala— City Charter— Notea—aty Buildinsa^l^o-
toiia Sqoare— Market Square— Water- worka —
Gaa-Worka— Fire Department— Bridgea—Poblic
HaUa-Hotela V.. 280-278
Cbap. II.— Grand RiTer Navigation Co.- Indnatrlea—
Cnatoma and Bevenne — Banking Companiea —
Board of Trade 279-299
CBAP. IIL-Lodgea. Booletiee and Bands— Y-MCA.-
The Dnfferin Billee. 800-824
CHAr. IV.— The Churchea 8S6-8S5
CaAP. v.— Celehration of the Crimean Vletory— Reoep-
tlon of the Prince of Walea— Celehration of the
Prince'a Wedding— Railway Celebration— Ck>Ter-
nor-Oeneral*s Viait— DeatmctiTe Fire, 1860— Mur-
der of Mail Carrier— The Fsnian Raid of 1866. ..887-868
PART IV.
TOWNSHIP HISTORY.
BftAjmois Townmp
IheGharahea.
861
867
867
860
Vniafea 870
Bi;«fQU»TowvaiiiP 872
, 878
BuivoiD Towmmp— Contimied.
Education and Pablie Sdiools 876
Crganimtion 877
The Burford Revolt in 1887 877
YUlagea
Churaiea. ..,.',
Medical Picfearion
V}
n
CONTENTS.
roKD Townair—Oontinuid.
Africaltiint SodeTr
Tne Volanteera of Brnfind .
Paai!
386
887
Sod0tSef and MMiii&cfeoriM.
PenoDftl Hiftoitot 880
Oaklato Tomnmp. 897
OiSBOiaitioii. 897
Oenmm. 402
SooUaod 408
Chnrchea. 404
Sodotiea 405
Settlement. 406
Oakland Village 406
Rebellion in 1887 406
OxoimAaA TowHiBir 400
The Indians. 400
Deacriplion 411
OsovDAGA Townmr— Continued, Pa«b
Eari J Settiement 412
The Lttmbermaa 41S
Early Boildinn—OiSauiaallon 414
Ooorta and Omciala 415
Schools 416
MUliw 410
Ferries. 490
Gharches. 481
nUafes 496
Inddents. 427
SOCTH DUMPKIM TOWXSHIP 499
"TbePlalna" 444
Villages 459
TowopPaeis 483
TrsCABoaA TovnoiP • 489
PARTY.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
city o( Bnntf Old 495 ■ Onondaga Township 1. . 684
Brantfoid Township 551 ; South Dumfries Township.... «. 6to
Borford Township 613 Tnsoarora Township 6*i6
Oakland Township 625
PORTRAITS.
WilliamWatts 41 L. a D. Lapierre 800
Ckpt. Joseph Brant. 83 Wm. T. Harris, M.D 827
Joseph D. Clement 165 . Ebeneaer Boy 345
AlfkedWatts 183 ~
Rev. Wm. OoduaiM 201
Wm. Bock 219
BobertHenry 287
Wm.E. WdWng 255
M. D. BaMwin 273
JohnBUott 201
James Beid
Hon. 8. J. Jones 881
Norman Hamilton 809
Wm- Bnrrell 417
Morris Lonndsbury 485
John Workman. 463
Charles Janis 471
PART« I.
DOMINION OF CANADA,
i
•
Part I.-THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
Our Beginnings. — Prehistoric.
The history of Canada begins with its discovery by civilized man. For
untold ages previous to this event our forests and rivers had Iield a sparse
population of savages, who in the fifteenth century had not advanced beyond
the manners of the age of stone. Of these there were three principal tribes :
the Iroquois, which at that time, however, were settled on the region south of
Lake Ontario, although they frequently invaded central Canada ; the Algon-
quins, who held the Atlantic seaboard and the St Lawrence and Ottawa
valleys ; and the Hurons, from Montreal westward, previous to their utter extir-
pation by the Iroquois two centuries ago. The Iroquois were the fiercest,
and had the virtues as well as the vices of savage life most fully marked ; they
have been called *' the Romans of the West," the most Indian of Indians, and
they seem to have reached the nearest approach to civilized life among the red
men. But they had not advanced beyond the prehistoric age of stone, beyond
the men who wrought the implements and drew the rude sketches of animals
that we find in caverns among the bones of the Mammoth and cave-bear. But
they formed a strong political organization, the Iroquois League, which drove
every other tribe before it ; in the w>rs between the white men the Iroquois
were the most dreaded foes and the most valued allies. Their force never
amounted to more than 2,000 warriors, but they had tactics terribly efiective
in the dark and tortuous forests through which they followed the war-path.
Unlike the wandering hunters of the Algonquin race, the Iroquois lived in
settled towns, surrounded with palisades, and containing a number of bark-
covered dwellings often 240 feet high. Along the sides of these were a num-
ber of bunks four feet in height, where the members of some twenty families
slept promiscuously together; provision for decency there was none. The
building was perpetually reeking with a pungent smoke, a fertile cause of eye
disease ; other annoyances were tlie filth, the fleas, the cries of children. Out-
side these " towns" patches of ground were laboriously, and after the toil of
months, cleared by cutting down a few trees ; a laborious work, hard to be
effected with stone hatchets. Then the squaws toiled with their rude hoes,
pointed with stone or clam-shell, stirrin<; up a little light earth to receive their
crop of corn, tobacco, pumpkins or Indian hemp. This the women spun by
the primitive plan of winding it round their thighs. There is no pleasant
aspect in the life of an Iroquois woman ; her youth was wantonness, her after
life drudgery. In the summer, at dances fkiid religious festivals, girls who had
never learned to blush went naked save for a skirt reaching from the waist to
2 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the knees. When permanently married, she was her husband's slave ; " the
Iroquois women," said Champlain, " are their mules/*
The chiefs, or sachems, fared no better than the humblest brave or hunter ;
Tecumseh and Pontiac hunted and fished for their susteDance, and were as
filthy, greasy and repidsive as any of their tribe.
Of metals they had hardly any use. Except for a few ornaments of gold or
copper, the knives that carved the venison fer Cartier, the arrowhead that
whizzed past the ears of Champlain, were of chipped flintstone. One work of
perfect art the Indian produced. Civilized man has devised nothing more
exquisitely graceful than the Indian birch canoe. A genuine offspring of the
forest and the lake, it floats, an exquisite combination of symmetry and lightness,
through scenes whence, like its buUders, it is soon destined to disappear. So the
Indian lived for ages amidst the works of nature without an effort to understand
her laws ; their religion not as some have explained it, a monotheistic cult of the
Great Spirit, but a childish aniTnism attributing personality to all phenomena of
the outward world. Life was supposed to pervade all nature, the silence of forest
or lake, the thunder of the cataract. When to the squaw, worn out with blows and
drudgery, to the hunter marble-frozen in the snowdrift. Death, the deliverer,
came, he brought neither terror nor hope. Good and bad, the dead passed
unjudged into the shadowy hunting ground, each accompanied by the ghost of
his pipe, his moccasins, his bow and arrows, his kettles and ornaments.
The discovery of Canada by Europeans was one of the many great results
which sprung from the new birth of modern thought out of the darkness of the
Middle Ages ; it came when Greek literature arose from the dead after the cap-
ture of Constantinople. In June, 1497, seventeen months before Columbus
set foot on the American mainland, John Cabot, sent by Henry VII. of Eng-
land, discovered Newfoundland and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence ; although
there is every reason to believe that the fisheries off Newfoundland had long
been known to Basque and Norman fishermen.
In 1524, Francis I. of France sent Verazzani to America. He merely coasted
along the countiy from Florida to Newfoundland, and named it " La Nouvelle
France," a name which was afterwards applied to Canada by the French. Hence
both the French and English claimed the country, though for two centuries
England paid no attention to a claim which was after all a mere feudal quibble.
In 1534 Jacques Cartier, the true discoverer of Canada, sailing from St. Malo,
circumnavigated Newfoundland, and scanned the dreary coasts of Labrador. He
entered a spacious bay, which, from the heat of the Canadian summer day,
he called Baie des Chaleurs, and ascending the St. Lawrence till land could be
seen on either side, erected on a commanding promontory a huge cross engraved
with the Jleurs-de4is of the French king, as a token of his sovereignty, in
spite of the opposition of an aged Indian chief — an opposition which was a
symbol of the ultimate failure of the red man before the white.
Once more King Fmncis, in May, 1535, sent out Cartier, better equipped for
the voyage, with three ships, the largest named La Orande Hermione, and 110
men. On the 10th of August he entered the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, which he
named after ihe Boman martyr, whose festival it was, for French colonization
was from the first religious. Along the river's course, with its banks of forest,
he sailed past the sombre entrance to the Saguenay ; and in the hope, common to
DOMINION OP CANADA. 3
all discoverers of that age, to find a passage to the Indies, sailed on. He was told
by Indian fishers that he would soon reach a country called Canada or Canata,
an Indian word signifying " town," passing several islands gay with summer
birds and flowers, and so covered with grape-vines that he named it " The Isle
of Bacchus." Near this, on the site of Quebec, was an Indian fort or town, Stada-
cona, where lived a chie^pDonnacona by name, whom the French, applying their
own feudal ideas to the merely personal and very precarious dignity df an
Indian chief, styled " The Lord of Canada.''
Although the Indians tried hard to bar their further progress, this dauntless
explorer sailed on through the unknown waters, till at length he anchored under
a hill which he named Mount Eoyal. There, where is now a stately city, no
unfit occupant even of that splendid scenery, was a rudely-built Indian town
called " Hochelaga," where he and his men were welcomed by the Indians as
superior beings, overwhelmed with feasting and presents, and intreated to heal
a crippled invalid chief, over whom Cartier read the " Passion " from the gospel ;
but the age of miracles being past, the old chiefs rheumatism remained as it was !
After three days' stay, Cartier returned to his fort at Stadacona, where he had the
courage to brave the rigours of the winter. This was a severe one, and the
garrison sufferred terribly from cold, hunger, and the increasing ravages of
scurvy. A friendly Indian told them the remedy, a decoction of spruce bark.
With the summer the explorers returned to France, having kidnapped the
friendly chief Dounacona and nine of his people, who were exhibited at Court,
and baptized with great pomp at Eouen Cathedral, but who died in their exile.
This action was not only a crime but a mistake ; it alienated the Indians, and
was the first step in a long series of mutual wrong-doings between the white
man and the red.
Cartier made two other voyages, which, however, led to no important re-
sults ; his search for the coveted precious metals and gems led only to finding
some worthless crystals in that part of the Quebec promontory which has
thence been named " Cape Diamond." These voyages, however, served the
purpose of familiarizing the French with the St. Lawrence region, and with the
Indians. A considerable traflic in furs and peltry was now carried on.
Besides the voyage of Cartier to Canada, several French expeditions visited
Sable Island, a barren strip of land oflF the Coast of Nova Scotia. The first of
these was by a nobleman named De Lery, who landed some cattle; as the
island, otherwise sterile, was covered with a coarse grass, and had a small lake
of fresh water, the cattle survived, and were the means of preserving the lives
of a few out of forty convicts landed there eighty years afterwards by the
Marquis de la Boche, Out of forty, twelve remained alive when a ship was
sent twelve years afterwards to ascertain their fate.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century Chauvois, a sea captain of Bouen,
brought out sixteen settlers and established them for the winter in a small fort
at Tadousac, where till lately the remains might be seen of a small house, built
by him, the first stone building in Canada.
The Fkench Colony.
It was the custom of the French monarchs at that period to give some great
nobleman nominal charge of Canada, with the title of Lieut.-Governor or Lieut-
4 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
General. One of these, De Chaste, conceived the idea of organizing a company
pf merchants who should undertake further exploration, and be given a mono-
poly of the fur trade. As his lieutenant in this enterprise he selected, in a
uood hour for Canada, Samuel de Champlain, a naval officer, who, though young,
had already done good service in the West Indies and elsewhere. Champlain
belon^'s to that type of essentially Christian heroe^ under which we class •
ColiHnbus, and very many of Champlain's successors, from Montmagny to
Montcalm. For the gains of trade he cared nothing ; lor the glory of France,
or THther of its King, he cared much ; but his highest aim was the glory of God,
by which he understood the extension of the Catholic faith. For these two
supreme objects there was no toil, no labour^ or danger, that he did not endure
during more than thirty years devoted to founding the colony of New France,
the germ of the Canada of to-day.
During this period he made many voyages between Canada and France to
procure reinforcements, and to represent the result of his explorations and the
prospects of colonization. In the first of them, in 1603, he ascended the St.
Lawrence, being favourably received by the Algonquin Indians ; all was changed
since Cartier's visit. Where Stadacona and Hochelaga then stood, both town
and people had vanished. He was arrested in his course by the Sault St. Louis
rapids, to which, from the notion of the river being a water-highway to China^
he gave the name of La Chine, but from the summit of Mount £oyal he looked
forth over forest and river of this new land of promise.
In a second voyage from France soon after, being better equipped with men
and supplies, he sailed with a nobleman named the Sieur de Monts, first
exploring tjie Coast of Nova Scotia, which De Monts preferred to Canada. A
Fort was built at Port Eoyal, now Annapolis, and leaving a small body of
settlers, who, after enduring great hardships, were about to abandon the colony
when a ship arrived with supplies from France. Acadia, as the colony was
called, flourished for some yeais, but was under the disadvantage of repeatedly
changing masters, according to the fortune of war between the French and
English. It was finally ceded to the latter in 1713.
Ghamplain's sagacious judgment perceived the superior advantages of Canada,
He was allowed to commission two ships, and on July 3rd, 1608, he founded
the future capital of French Canada on the north shore of that part of the
river which the Indians called ** Quebec," or " Strait." There, beneath the
now historic hill, he raised a few huts, a magazine for stores, a wooden fort,
and on the rocks above a barrack for the soldiers. There he remained with his
settlers for two years and a half. During the winter all suflFered severely from
cold and scurvy. His men were mutinous ; wretched Indians hovered about
his settlement, ready to beg or steal : but Ghamplain's firmness crushed rebel-
lion ; his faculty for government held the discordant elements of the little
colony together ; the lofty pitty of his nature seemed like that of one of the
old heroes of Christian romance, Godfrey or St. Louis, come back to life again^
Languor vms not in his work.
Weakness not in his word,
/ Weariness not on his brow!
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 5
Bat, saint as he was as well as soldier, the saintliness had some alloy of
Loyola, teaching that the end justifies the means. The end, so persistently
worked out by the politicians and Jesuits who succeeded hira, was by taking
sides with one of the hostile Indian races to subilue their opponents, and win
both at last as subjects of France and vassals of the Church. He chose the
weaker and less organized tribe of Algonquins, and in 1609 joined a party of
their warriors in exploring the beautiful lake that bears his name, and in attack-
ing their foes, the Iroquois. The white man's firearms won an easy victory; but
a false step had been taken, the wrath of the implacable Six Nations was once
and forever aroused, to break out again and again in massacre and the torture
of settler and priest, missionary and delicate maiden; till at last the Iroquois,
joining the foes of France, helped to conquer Canada for England !
In 1511 he marked out the present site of Montreal as a post to be occupied,
and surrounded it with an earthen rampart, naming it Place Royala As every
memorial of our earliest Canadian hero interests Canadians, it is well to note
that St. Helen's Island is named after Champlain's wife.
Soon after this, guided by some Algonquin braves in their birch canoes, Cham-
plain — ^first of white men — ^ascended the Ottawa Alone with savages, whose
friendship he could not trust, he passed day after day ascending that silent high-
way, with its unvarying fringe of primeval forest, inhabited only by wild beasts
now scarcely to be found but in museums. He followed the di&cult portage
where the terrific cataract of the Chaudiere, the abode of a malignant spirit, to
whom his guides were fain to throw their oflTerings of tobacco, a cataract which
now mingles its voice with the tumult of a great city. 1 hence through the
clear stream of the Upper Ottawa to yet another portage, he saw stretching
across the river the ridge of limestone precipice, over which the whole force
of the Ottawa thunders. Thence over the bi-oad Lake of the Wild Cats on to
the Indian settlements, where the most difficult of all the Ottawa portages
stops the way at the Allumette rapids. Here Champlaiu was entertained by a
Iriendly chief Thence he returned to Quebec, and proceeded to France, where
the greatest Interest was now felt in the new colony. Champlain was freely
supplied with stores, arms, settlers and artisans for Quebec. On his return he
found the colonists prosperous ; the Indians had been friendly, and the crops
planted in the virgin soil had yielded an encouraging return.
Anxious for the conversion of the heathen around him, Champlain without
difficulty induced four priests of the Beformed-Franciscan Order of Recollet
Friars to come as missionaries to the Indians ; they were received with enthu-
siam by the pious settlers, and the astonished Algonquins watched with wonder
the vested priest, the altar with its mystic lights and crucifix, as the first mass
was intoned and the strange-smelling incense mingled with the odours of pine and
cedar in the summer woods. But a mightier Order than the BecoUets was to be
the seed of the French Church in Canada by the blood of its martyrs.
Champlain was led in 1615, by the importunities of his Algonquin allies, to
repeat his mistake of joining in the horrors of Indian war. Once more he
ascended the Ottawa, again labouring to drag canoe and baggage over the numer-
ous portages, struggling for life amid rapids which are still dreaded by our
lumbermen. At the difficult and tedious Allumette portage a storm had blown
trees across the only track, the woods were blocked up, Champlain had to cany
6 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
his baggage, much of which he lost. A few years ago an ancient rapier, and an
astrolobe or astromonical instrument then used by travellers, were found in this
very place ; they are believed to be relics of the founder of Quebec, Thence they
passed in their birch canoes, gliding through forests kindled by the touch of
autumn into gold and crimson, or camping at night by watch-fires that might
haply scare away the wolf and bear. At length they reached the region, still
wild as in Champlain's day, where now the locomotive of the new built Pacific
Railway out-screams the eagle amid the lonely hills of Mattawa. By this they
took their way to Lake Nipissing, where they were welcomed by seven or eight
hundred Nipissing warriors, who escorted them by canc^ and portage to the
great inland sea of the Hurons ; coasting this for some forty-five leagues, they
struck into the interior, and Champlain at last beheld a Huron town, so different
from the solitary huts of the Algonquin hunter. Here there was more comfort,
better crops, plenty of vegetables, corn, and venison and bear flesh ; savage life in
a better aspect, but still savage life. For three days Champlain witnessed with
wonder and disgust the interminable feast, the warriors as they gorged like
vultures, the naked and painted braves, their black hair sleek with the oil made
from sunflower seed, their faces hideous with war paint ; the leapings and ges-
ticulations of the war dance, and the dances, not less disgusting to the pious
Frenchman, of shameless and robeless wantons. At last it was over; they
marched against the foe, by whom at first they were repulsed, but through
Champlain's aid and advice they won a victory disgraceful and disastrous to the
Christian colony. Champlain urged them to follow up the success by an
immediate storm of the hostile camp, but he soon found that these savage war-
riors woHld only fight as it pleased themselves, yelling their curses against the
enemy, and firing their flint-pointed arrows at the strong wooden ramparts.
Champlain received two wounds in the leg ; his allies were driven to retreat
In vain Champlain urged them to fulfil their promise of sending him home. He
learned the value of an Indian's friendship and promise, except as may suit the
caprice of these grown up children, changeable as the wind. A friendly chief,
however, sheltered him during the winter ; he is believed to have crossed the
isthmus now called ** Carrying Place " to the shores of the Bay of Quinte, where
he could spend the winter in safety from the Iroquois. His host's house fortu-
nately was a more comfortable one than those of most Indians. On the 20th of
May he proceeded to Lachine, and got to Quebec by the end of June.
Again he proceeded to France, where he found divided counsels as to the
management of the colony from the internecine quarrel between the Huguenots
of Bochelle, then on the eve of rebellion against their countrv, and the Catholic
French. Efforts were made to deprive Champlain of his position. The
Fur Trade Company, which had promised to send out a large number of settlers,
had neglected this part of the contract, and thought only of furs ; this had
been all along a great hindrance to the growth of Quebec. Worst news of all,
Champlain learned that certain Huguenot traders from Rochelle had set the
fatal example of selling firearms to the heathen foe. At this time two
wealthy Huguenots named De Caen gained a position of authority in the
colony, which they used to thwart Champlain's plans and stir up religious
dissension ; they cared little for the good of the colony, and only troubled
themselves with the fur trade. Cardinal Sichelieu, then all powerful in
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 7
France, for this reason revoked their appointment, and organized a company,
that of the " Hundred Associates," who undertook to furnish supplies, and in
particular to send and support a sufficient number of priests, who were to have
lands and the necessary supplies of food and seed. Champlain was to be
Grovernor of Canada, which was now named " New France."
But next year, 1628, war broke out between France and England, when
the profligate Duke of Buckingham's influence at Court caused aid to be sent
to the rebels at Rochelle. A fleet was sent out under Kirk, who, in spite of
a determined resistance by Champlain, gained possession of Quebec, which was
forced to surrender by want of provisions. But neither England nor France
cared much about the possession of Canada, and it was only Champlain's
representation that caused its restoration to be insisted on at the peace
of 1632.
Champlain was now, at the end of his long and checquered life, rewarded
by being appointed Governor, and still more by taking back with him a
number of settlers of means and repute. With these were four Jesuits, setting
out to join their Superior, Le Jeune, who had already sailed from Rouen with
two companions.
These men, clad in long black cassocks, with rosary hanging from the girdle,
and with broad looped-up black hats, were destined to illustrate the better
side of Jesuitism — the Jesuitism of the martyrs, not of the political intriguers ;
their missionary work was to call all that was noblest and most chivalrous in
France to a new crusade against heathenism, and to emulate the sufferings,
the martyrdom, the love for souls, the patience of the first Christians.
To Champlain remained two years more of life, during which his rule, under
the Jesuit keepers of his conscience,*made Quebec seem like a monastery.
All day long the church bell was going. Every one, from Champlain down to
the youngest drummer boy, went through the imceasing round of mass, penance,
and confession. The more serious were delighted ; New France was so holy a
place that if any one from there failed to be saved, he deserved double damna-
tion ; so Le Jeune said. Even the amusements were of an ecclesiastical cast ; a
display of fireworks on a saint's day, a dramatic entertainment, in which an
Algonquin who persisted in paganism was dragged away by demons. Thus
piously and peaceably the last (^ys of this true saint and soldier ebbed away.
He died — ^a fitting day and hour for such a life to close — while the bells were
tolling for mass on Christmas Day 1635.
The Jesuits.
History, wliich is non-partisan and non-sectarian, seldom deals in unqualified
praise or blame. We know what use Jesuitism has made of its founder's teach-
ing that it is lawful to do evil in order that good may come ; that sin is no
Icmger sin if done to the gloty of God. The evil results of Jesuit rule have
been proved before the world. While Jesuit martyrs were patiently enduring
in Canada the tortures which we see emblazoned on the walls of their church
at Montreal, a Jesuit priest at Versailles was directing, through the King's
conscience, the destiny of France by means of his good-natured tolerance of his
penitent's mistress. The great Order, like all other products of human nature, had
8 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
its twofold aspect, good and evil. Let us not refuse to face the facts which
make for either ! As the Order has sown, so it has reaped ! In France it was
a factor,' no inconsiderable one, of the Revolution which threatens to become
world-wide ; in Canada, by the direction it gave to French rule and its aliena-
tion of the Iroquois, it helped to produce the English conquest, American in-
dependence, its consequences, the peopling of Upper Canada, and who shall say
what further changes therefrom resulting. Le Jeune's first efforts were for the
conveision of the Algonquin huntera ; from one of them, who was disabled from
hunting, he obtained instructions in the language in return for food and occa-
sional tobacco. He passed a winter of the most extreme discomfort with a
lodge of hunters, day by day helping to carry the bark for building the hut at
each fresh halt, tormented with the filth, the vile talk, the heat of the huge fire
round which they sat, while the piercing cold gave equal pain. A pagan priest,
or sorcerer, with true professional jealousy, endeavoured to disgust and annoy
the Christian. Yet he persevered. But recognizing the greater advantage of
attempting missionary work among a race like the- Hurous, who lived gre-
gariously in towns, the celebrated Brebeuf led a mission to the far distant
Hurons. He was at first received kindly, and assisted to build a mission house
that served also as church. The Hurons looked with awe and delight at the
church ornaments and vestments ; above all at the ticking and striking clock.
But, savage-like, they soon changed. It was a dry season, the new rites had
scared the thunder-biid who brings the rain! Brebeuf exhorted them to
repent and be baptized, and promised that he would pray for rain ; the prayer
was followed by a miraculous rain-fall. But anon came a pestilence of small-pox,
a new plague, fatal above all to Indians. This was the result of the Christian
" medicine," baptism and the sign of the cross. The lives of the missionaries
were daily threatened as they wandered from one pest-stricken dwelling to
another, oflFering help. They were obliged to witness horrible indecencies,
dreadful and shameless nude dances, such as St Anthony saw the beautiful girl-
demons tempt him with. They had to be present at the loathsome Feast of the
Dead, when the Hurons collected the festering corpses of all who^had died during
the last nine years, when these were taken from the grave and wrapped in
robes of honour and kept in the house of each relative for days before, with
horrible ceremonies and the feasting as of ghouls, they were thrown into one of
those vast bone pits still found in the country of the Hurons.
The narrative of these suflferings is told with a touching simplicity and
absence of self -consciousness in the " Kelations des Jesuites," a copy of which
scarce and valuable book is preserved in the Parliament Library, Toronto.
But these were only the beginning of sorrows.
Thirty -two years since Champlain first shed Iroquois blood, the Indian war
broke oui The Jesuit priest, Jogues, had gone to Three Rivers and Quebec
with the Huron traders to represent the utter destitution of the Huron mission.
He had been given freely what was required, and was returning in one of the
leading canoes.
Jogues is described as being a man of singularly winning address, with oval
face and gentle manners. He was also an excellent scholar.
As the canoes passed through the shallow waters at the western end of Lake
St. Peter, the war-whoop rose from among the tall bulrushes, a volley of muskets
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 9
followed, and canoes filled with Iroquois warriors surrounded that which bore
Jdj:^!^- The Hurons, as usual, fled. Jogues leaped among the reeds ; he might
have fled, but would not desert his Huron converts ; he gave himself up. His
companion, a French lay Jesuit, Couture, was thrown down by four Iroquois,
who stripped him naked, tore away his finger-nails with their teeth, and stabbed
his hand through with a sword. Jogues sprang to his friend and embraced him.
The Iroquois beat Jogues with fists and clubs, and tore away his nails and
gnawed his fingers with fury, as of the wolves after whom they named them-
fit'lves. An old Huron, wham Jogties had that moment baptized with his mangled
hfftid, was clubbed to death ; the other Hurons were spared — for the present.
Then they marched their captives south, fainting and athirst, under a burning
sun. The torture of the wounded men was increased by the swarming mosquitos.
As they reached the town the Iroquois were met by 200 of their tribe, who,
forming in two lines, forced the prisoners to run the gauntlet, striking them so
hard with clubs and thorny sticks that Jogues fell, covered with blood. Again
they mangled his hands ; then applied fire to his flesh. At night the young
warriors mocked their eflbrts to rest, and tore out their hair and beards. Once
more they embarked in canoes ; were conveyed to another Iroquois town ; then
again the tortures were applied; the Jesuits ran the gauntlet. Jogues calls it,
characteristically, " The narrow road of Paradise'* They were mounted on a
platform, when a Christian Indian woman was ordered to cut off Jogues' thumb
with a clam-shell knife ; she did so. At night they were tied on the floor of
earth, each with extended limbs and wrists fast bound to stakes. Then the
Iroquois childi'^n playfully set red-hot coals on their bodies. It is needless to
repeat the horrible detail of cruelties inflicted again and again at every Mohawk
town. Strange to say, Jogues escaped through the humanity of a Dutch trader.
A year afterwards a strange and worn-looking traveller asked speech with the
Superior of the Jesuit College at Bheims, in France, saying that he brought news
from Canada. Eagerly the Superior asked if he knew Father Jogues, who had
been taken and murdered by the Iroquois ? Jogues fell on his knees to ask a
blessing, with the words, " I am he."
These Jesuit missionaries were not religionists compelled to fly from home to
the wilderness to secure freedom of religious opinion ; they had the sympathy
and homage of all France. Jogues was summoned to the King's court ; the
French Queen, Anne of Austria, kissed his mutilated hand ; but he would not
be persuaded to remain away from his missionary work, and returned to be
again tortured, and at last killed, by the demons he sought to save. We have
given his case simply as a specimen. There are many similar. De Noe,
chased by the heathen, was found in the snow-drift, kneeling, his face turned
heavenward, his hands clasped, frozen while he prayed. Brebeuf, the founder
of the Huron mission, was tortured to death, boiling water poured over him in
mockery of bapticon. Death had no terrors for men like these.
The Indian Wars.
To Champlain succeeded a governor of similar temperament, Charles de
Montmagny, who as a member of the Order of Knights of Malta, was half a
luonk, half a soldier. The Jesuit regime in La Nouvelle France was well sus-
10 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
tained. The Order vas all-powerful. Meanwhile the mission work they had
been at such pains to build up among the Hurons was swept away with the
extermination of their converts by the Iroquois. The latter had purchased
firearm^ from the Dutch and English settlers at New York, and now fought
with white men on equal terms. The Hurons were all but destroyed from the
face of the earth ; their fate had broken the courage of the Algouquins so much
that they were useless as allies.
But in France, the sufferings of the Jesuit missionaries, as the story was
spread throughout the land in the famous "Eelations des Jesuites," published year
by year, aroused a new enthusiasm. The age of faith seemed to revive the age
of miracles, Men of wealth and good repute for worldly wisdom saw visions
commanding them to establish a colony, and found religious houses " on an
island called Montreal, in Canada." Stranger miracle stiU, these wealthy gen-
tlemen gave up their bank accounts as readily as the early Christians who laid
their all at the Apostles' feet. A society of nobles and gentlemen was formed
" to plant the banner of Christ in an abode of demons ;" that is, to found at
Montreal three religious bodies : one of priests to teach, direct and convert ; one
of nuns, to nurse the wounded and sick ; a thirds also of nuns, to tend and teach
the children, French and Indian.
Religion became for the day the fashion ; money poured in ; the sum of
£75,000, according to some double that amount, was soon contributed. A free
grant of the island was made to the founders of the new settlement, which,
from its commanding position at the confluence of Canada's two greatest arteries
of navigation, must in the future be the centre of commerce, and would at pre-
sent serve as a second centre of defence against the Iroquois, and as a point of
vantage for missionar}' effort in the heart of heathendom. Their anticipations
were based altogether on religious zeal, on visions, on apparitions and voices
from heaven. They have proved as true as if they had been the cool calcula-
tions of statesmen and capitalists. A rich young lady, Mademoiselle Jeanne
Marie, was supernaturally called to join the settlers at Montreal, and devote
her wealth to God. All Paris praised her, prelates and Jesuits made much of
her. Forty soldiers were to accompany the band of enthusiasts. Paul de
Chomechy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a nobleman resembling Champlain both in
devoutness and valour, was to be governor of Montreal. They were to be joined
and aided by one who makes one of the most winning figures in that marvellous
group, Marguerite Bourgeoys, destined to labour for years among the little ones
of the new colony. She was given a miraculous image of the Virgin. It svill
stands overlooking the river, in a gable niche of the quaint old seventeenth century
church of Notre Dame dcs Bonnes Succours, in Montreal, and many a pious man-
ner and anxious mother find comfort as they invoke " Our Lady of Gracious
Help."
In February, 1042, the associates, numbering forty-two, stood in the Church of
Notre Dame at Paris, before the altar of the Virgin, after whom the town was to
be named Ville Marie de Montreal,
When Maisonneuve, with the soldiers and the religious women, reached
Quebec, the approach of winter made it necessary for them to stay at Quebec
till spring. Jealousy arose between Quebec and the new colony. Montmagny
thought Maisonneuve's appointment an infringement of his own authority.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. II
During the winter, however, Maisonneuve and his men built boats to carry them
to their destination, and in May they embarked, their boats heavily freighted,
and passed safely through their dangerous course of sombre forests and wooded
isles ; when, on May 17th, they came in view of Mount Royal, dark with woods
against the sky, all voices joined in a hymn of praise. With them arrived a new
accession to their ranks, the celebrated Madame de la Peltrie, a French lady of
fashion and wealth, whom a miraculous vision had sent across the ocean to
Quebec, and who now desired to join the new and more perilous adventure in
behalf of religion. An altar was raised, she and Jeanne Marie decorated it with
faultless taste ; before it stood Father Vincent in his costly vestments, Maison-
neuve in glittering steel amid his soldiers; mass was sung, and the priest
addressed them in words of promise that events have made seem prophetic.
Montmagny erected a small fort, and secured it by a garrison so as furhe r
to hold the Iroquois in check. To this the great Cardinal Eichelieu, then the
real ruler of France, sent out supplies and forty men, a happy reinforcement,
as 200 Iroquois soon afterwards attacked it. There was a gap in the palisades,
and the savages were pouring in, when a corporal with a few soldiers held them
in check till Montmagny came to their relief from his brigantine on the river.
The ** Hundred Associates" had neglected their duties as much as the former
trading companies, and in 1647 sold their rights to the colonists of Three Rivers,
Quebec, and Ville Marie, A peace which lasted but a year was obtained by
Montmagny's clemency to some Iroquois whom their Huron captors were about
to put to death. There were endless feastings and speeches ; belt after belt of
wampum was presented by the Iroquois chiefs, each belt symbolizing a separate
clause of the treaty of peace. At this time the Iroquois seem to have intended
to maintain peace, but the credulous and capricious savages were excited against
the Christian missionaries by their sorcerers ; a pestilence fell on their towns, a
plague of caterpillars devoured the corn ; all was brought about by the " medi-
cine" of "the men of the black robe." The tribes were divided ; some clung to
peace, but a band of Mohawks seized the Jesuits, Jogues and La Lande, whom
they put to death with tortures as horrible as those mentioned in a preceding sec-
tion. War was now raging again; the lust for blood spread all through the tribes ;
they plundered and destroyed Fort Richelieu ; on Ash Wednesday, while the
garrison were at mass, they carried oflF all the property of the neighbouring settlers,
which had been brought there for safety. They then pursued and captured two
laige parties of Christian Indians, whom they put to the usual horrible tortures.
One tried to escape ; they burnt the soles of his feet to prevent a second attempt.
A little child they crucified by nailing it with wooden wedges to a cross of bark.
Amid the tortures a Christian Indian exhorted them to be steadfast, and prayed
aloud, all joining in the prayer. One woman, an Indian named Marie, escaped
after incredible hardships, to tell the tale at Three Rivers.
In 1648, Montmagny, who had done his duty well but had perhaps been para-
lysed by the breakdown of the Hurons and the insufficient means at his dis-
posal to resist the Iroquois, was recalled to France ; his successor was Louis
D'Ailleboust, one of the Associates of Montreal, a brave soldier, and an enthusiast
in religion. A change was now made by which the Governor-General, with the
Superior of the Jesuits and three of the principal colonists, formed a council in
which was vested all the powers of government. A provision was made for the
soldiers* pay.
12 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The Indian war went on with unexampled fury ; not an inhabitant of a single
French settlement dared venture beyond the limits of the fort Attack after
attack was made on the Algonquins and the miserable remains of the Hurons, a
few of whom found refuge at Lorette, a village near Quebec. De Lauson
(1651) and D'Argenson were the next governors. The 'horrors of Indian war
•cpntinued. So hard pressed was the garrison of Montreal that Maisonneuve,
the Governor, went to France for reinforcements. He could only obtain a
hundred men, whose arrival, however, was sufficient io make the Iroquois sue
for peace. This was effected through Father Lemoine's persuasive eloquence.
In 1655 the Iroquois of Onondaga expressed a wish that a French settlement
might be made in their country. Accordingly Captain Dupuis was sent with
missionaries and an escort of fifty men. But this action aroused the jealous
hat« of the savages, and Dupuis was warned that their death was resolved on.
Dupuis, by a pardonable stratagem, supplied the Iroquois with liquor, and thus
he and his party managed to escape in canoes. De Lauson had neither energy
nor firmness for the crisis.
The day that D'Argenson landed at Quebec, the Iroquois massacred a party
of Christian Indians close to Quebec. These wolves of the wilderness had
now overrun New France, when Dulac des Ormeaux, a young Frenchman of
Montreal, resolved at the sacrifice of life to check the advance that it was
known the united force of the Iroquois was meditating on Montreal.
No nK)re remarkable story exists in the chivalrous annals of French Canada.
Dulac with the seventeen companions who volunteered to share his adventure,
solemnly attended church for the last time. Well armed and with some fifty
Hurons to support them, they look up position in an old palisade fort near the
Long Sault rapids. • Some six hundred Iroquois warriors surrounded their post,
and again and again swarmed up to the palisade, to be as often repulsed by the
brave defenders. The base Hurons deserted to the enemy who had all but
destroyed their race, an act of cowardice such as has never stained the record of
the Iroquris ! New reinforcements at length enabled the savage hordes, after
having been held at bay for ten days, to force their way within. Only four of
the Frenchmen were left alive ; these shot the few faithful Hurons to save
them from Iroquois tortures. The four died at the stake. But the Iroquois
had lost enormously, and the moral efifect of so great a check from eighteen
Frenchmen prevented for the present any attack on Montreal. Surely Dalac
deserves to rank with any hero of antiquity ; and the place where he died,
within the roar of the Long Sault Bapids, is the Thermopylae of Canadian
history.
Baron D'Avaugour came to succeed D'Argenson. We do not dwell on these
mere names of governors, to whom no national, and therefore no historical
interest attaches. However, it deserves record that D' A vaugour's represantations
saved Canada from abandonment by France as a worthless burden. At this
•Governor's urgent request the colony was now taken under the direct care of
the French King,, and a force of 600 men sent to Quebec. Their arrival found
the Governor engaged in a quarrel with M. Laval, whose name, surviving
honourably in Laval University, survives with yet greater honour in his eflTorts
to suppress by penal law the ruinous practice of supplying liquor to the
Indians. Laval proceeded to France and urged his case ; as a result D'Avaugour
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 13^
was recalled, and on Laval's representatioD, De Mesy sent in his place (1663),
This year there occurred a saccession of slight earthquake shacks all over
Canada, which caused no loss of life ur property, but greatly alarmed tiie
Indians, who thought that the bodies of their braves, buried unavenged, wei-e
reproaching their inaction I
The great Finance Minister, Colbert, had at this time turned his attention to-
the social and political condition of Canada.
The modem view of history is that it ought not, in order to be really iustruc*
tive, to consist of mere lists of kings or governors, or the intrigues of statesmen,
or the dates and details of battles. It should, above all, give a clear idea of the
life of the people, aud of all those causes, as far as we can trace them, which
are factors iu social and industrial progress. At this point, then, we shall placu
before the readers a few particulars as to the life and social condition of the
Canadian people as they were when Colbert turned his attention to the subject.
The entire population of New France at this time did not exceed, by more
than three or four hundred, some two thousand. These were scattered here and
there, from the Quebec settlements to Montreal. The population grew slowly ;.
it continued massed to a great extent in Quebec, Three Kivers, and Moutroal,
from fear of the Iroquoia
The fur trade was still the chief industry, but its value had diminished, the
market being lessened by two causes — the invention of a new fabric which took
the place of the beaver skin, and the fact that the Iroquois of New York not
only preferred to sell to the English of New York and Connecticut, who gave
better prices than the French, but even diverted the traffic of other Indians.
Still a considerable quantity of peltry passed into the hands of the French
traders.
In spite of all difficulties, agriculture had so greatly developed that De Mesy
was able to tell Colbert that supplies of food need no longer be sent, as Canada
could now raise all the grain needed. Trade must have been beginning to move
in other directions than the fur export^ for Colbert is told that what is required
is specie, as there is no coin for purposes of exchange.
AH land tenures were of the feudal kind, then in use in France. These
practically subjected the occupiers of land to the seigneurs, or lords paramount.
All this has only been abolished long after the English conquest. The form of
government which Louis XIV. consented that Colbert should institute was, in
truth, an absolute despotism. First in rank was the Grovernor. With him
acted a Council, including the Intendant, or Minister of Justice, the Bishop,
and leading colonists. Owing to the constant strife between the Governor and
the Bishop, or Intendant, there might seem to be the elements of an opposition.
Such, however, was not the case in any true sense.
The exisrtions of the Jesuit missions, althou^ seemingly so often quenched
in blood, had by this time taken root even among many of the Iroquois. It
nmst be said to their credit that tlie French knew how to manage the Indians
better than the two other great nations who came into contact with them, the
Spanish and English. The Spaniard neglected the Indian and oppressed him ;.
the Englishman neglected and despised him ; but the French took the Indian
by the hand, made much of him, intermaiTied with the Christianized and edu-
cated Indian girls. Tlie good nuns of the Quebec Ursuline convent, and those
14 fflSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of Montreal, had not laboured in vain. The Indian girl learned to be neat,
thrifty, modest. The story is told that a little Indian girl at one of these
schools, when it chanced one day that a man had shaken hands with her, r^n to
wash her hands, as if touched by an unclean thing. Then, the French loved
hunting, as the English colonist agriculture and trade, and the courier des hois,
and voyageur with his Indian wife, became in habits almost one of her people.
An example of this type of men was one whose tomb we have visited within
the roar of the Alumette cataract, on the Upper Ottawa, Cadieux was a mighty
Imnter, a wise man too, the legend goes, and a composer and singer of the
*' chansoTis " which New France has with such grace inherited from her Norman
-and Breton ancestors. One day as he and his companions were packing the
large canoe whichwas to go on the yearly trip with furs to Montreal, the word
was given that the Iroquois were at hand. Cadieux and a few others remained to
keep the wolVes at bay, while all the others launched their canoe down the
terrible rapids, which rush from the height in a single shaft of water to break
into a sea of foam below. It was a desperate chance ; but the wife of Cadieux
was a Christian, and from her place in the canoe she invoked the aid ot St.
Anne. And the legend tells how a foam-white figure moved before the canoe,
and wherever she glided the waves grew calm, and the canoe passed safely to
the stream below. It was good St. Anne who came to save her votaries.
Poor Cadieux died in the woods of exhaustion. A " lament" of some poetical
power was found written by him as he lay dying ; we heard it sung by our
Indian guide beside his grave. Such were many of the hardy French woods-
men ; we may see their descendants in the gay and stalwart lumbermen of the
Ottawa region at this day.
De Mesy's constant quarrels with the Council, and his having exceeded his
powers by sending back to France two of its principal members, led to his
being recalled. He died at Quebec, however, before the news of his deposition
reached him.
Under Colbert's influence a step was now taken of the utmost benefit to the
French colony. The Marquis de Tracy, a nobleman of great w^isdom and
knowledge,, was empowered to regulate the affairs of the colony as Viceroy,
with Talon, celebrated as a financier, as Intendant, and De Courcelles as gov-
ernor, to succeed the Viceroy on his return to France. De Tracy's extraordinary
mission to ascertain the true state of the country resembled that afterwards
undertaken by Lord Durham ; both were of the greatest benefit to Canada.
De Tracy, as well as Talon, his Intendant, were carefully instructed by Colbert,
that great minister, who, even under the despotism of Louis XIV., pursued
such an enlightened and liberal policy.
De Tracy was received at Quebec (July, 1665) with the warmest welcome from
all classes. Mass and Te Deum were sung, and the Viceroy, who tad been
instructed to put a stop to the perpetual friction between the Bishop and the
Executive, showed the utmost respect to the Church authorities. He had secret
instructions to depress, without openly quarrelling, the exorbitant pretensions
of the Jesuits, and to favour their rivals, the Eecollets, who were now restored
and reinstated in the possessions of which they had been deprived at their expul-
sion. With De Tracy amved a veteran regiment of the French army, which
had fought under Turenne, that called the Carignan, with their colonel, De
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 15
Salieres. A number of settlers of the most valuable kind accompanied them —
carpenters, blacksmiths, and other artisans. Live stock were also sent. The
Indians gazed with wonder on horses, never seen before in Canada
In place of the old fort which the Iroquois had destroyed, three stone forts
were erected and garrisoned on the River Richelieu. The Iroquoi§ were intimi-
dated by these formidable measures, and the farmers of Canada that year
enjoyed an unaccustomed security.
Talon meanwhile was procecling with his measures of reform at Quebec. He
found the conntry rife with complaints against the Jesuits, with whom, however,
he judged it prudent not openly to intertere, except to lower the rate of tithes.
Uis method of settling the new colonists was to arrange the farm lands granted
as close together as possible, so that the people might help each other in case of
attack.
But the most important benefit which the colony teceived from this great
administrator was being taken once for all out of the hands of the trading
company, free trade being allowed to all, both with the Indians and France.
Now for the first time in Canadian history was attention directed to our
cottntry's mineral and lumber resources, spars and masts from our forests being
sent to France for the King's dockyards. An engineer sent by Talon discovered
iron in abundance, also copper and silver, at the Bay of St. Paul. Near Three
Rivers iron mines were constructed, still yielding in large quantities iron superior
to the best found in Sweden. Talon set on foot new manufactures and new
improvements in agriculture. He started the seal and porpoise fisheries ; the
latter — now scared away by the frequent passing of steamers — then abounded at
the mouth of the St. Lawrence. This trade proved most lucrative. By the year
1688, 1,100 merchant ships anchored in the port of Quebec, and when the
Viceroy left the colony its population had doubled.
Three out of five of the Iroquois nations now offered peace. Against the
two that held aloof Courcelles and De Tracy took the field in separate direc-
tions, although it was mid-winter, Courcelles in command of some C^adian
militia Our national soldiery, since then so often victorious, showed valuable
qualities of patience and endurance in that trying march. But the Iroquois
everywhere fled before them, the villages being abandoned. De Tracy ex-
perienced the same thing, but found large stores of maize and other supplies,
all which, except what was needed for the army, they destroyed, burning also
the villages wherever theymarched.
Terror-stricken at such a blow dealt in mid- winter, the Iroquois now
made peace for eighteen years. As a further security, most of the Carignan
regiment settled in Canada, the officers and men receiving grants of land, the
former as seigneurs. De Tracy returned to France in 1667, De Courcelles
succeeding him.
It was now that serious difficulties arose between Canada and the colony
which England had wrested from the Dutch, and named New York. The
English were perpetually intriguing to get the entire fuf trade into their own
hands, even that with the French Indians, whom they were able to influence
through the Iroquois, now as always the firm allies of the New York English.
The latter even resorted to the unfair expedient of underselling the French so
as to divert the fur trade to New York.
16 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
It had become known throagh the .Jesuit missionaries, who during this
century had made their way everywhere, that a lai^e portion of the tribes east
of the Mississippi, and north of Lake Superior, had, through the influence of
their priests, become favourable to the French. M, Talon, therefore, sent a
travelling merchant named Perrot, well skilled in Indian usages, to gather a
great meeting of chiefs, which accordingly met at Sault Ste. Marie,' at the foot of
Lake Superior, where they were addressed by M. de St. Lussen as plenipoten-
tiary for the King of France. The chiefs were flattered into acknowledging
themselves the vasscds of Louis the Great.
Before leaving Canada, on account of failing health, De Courcelles held another
convention at Cataraqui (Kingston) with the Iroquois chiefs, whom he induced
to consent to his erecting a fort at Cataraqui. This he repi'esented as a mere
trading depot. The next Governor was Louis de Buade, Count de Frontenac. a
haughty but firm as well as prudent leader of men, to whom Canada owes
much. He was struck with the grandeur of Quebea " I have never seen any-
thing which for feeauty or magnificence could compare with Quebec," he said.
He found the colony prosperous, the Iroquois at peace. The population of New
France was now 45,000. Frontenac had much trouble with the Jesuits and
their partisans, the Bishop of Quebec and Perrot. The latter he sent to France,
where for a time he was imprisoned in the Bastila
A report had reached the French Mission from their Indian converts of a
" great water " far to the* south. Frontenac, induced by Talon, sent the famous
explorers Joliet and Marquette on an expedition, which resulted in the dis-
covery of the Mississippi. This great event in the annals of mankind belongs,
however, to American or French rather than to Canadian history. The brilliant
and unfortunate La Salle was afterwards sent in the same direction, and ranks
among the earliest explorers of the Father of Waters.
La Salle's expedition so far belongs to the scope of our history that, having
been appointed Seigneur of Cataraqui, he rebuilt the Fort of Frontenac with
stone walls. All trace of La Salle's fortalice has long vanished, but in the
barrack yard of the aitillery barracks at Kingston some portion of an old bastion
may still be traced which marks its site. He also built a fort at Niagara, and
may be regarded as the founder of the town of that name. A few miles above
the Falls, then for the first time gazed upon by civilized man, he built a vessel,
the first constructed in Canada, called the Grrifftn, She soon afterwards^
foundered in a storm. The rest of this ill-fated expedition, which resulted in the
mutiny of the men and their leader's death, belongs to American history.
Through the machinations of the Bishop and the Intendant, Frontenac was
recalled, in an evil hour for New France. He could not have held his position so
long but for the influence of the King s mistress, Madame de Maintenon, to whom
he had the doubtful honour of being related. The new Governor-General, De la
Barre, arrived at Quebec in 1682. He found that the Iroquois were about to
make war on the Illinois allies of the French, and that the English Governor of
New York was using every means to incite the Iroquois against New France.
He wrote home urgently for succour. He temporized with the Iroquois; flattered^
them ; and let them see that he feared their power. A force of 200, and subse-'
quently a much larger one, arrived from France ; but he had proved himself so
thoroughly incompetent for his post at such a critical time, that he was recalled.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 17
and the Marquis de Denonville sent in his place (1686). He brought a reinforce-
ment of 600 soldiers. He endeavoured to conciliate the Iroquois chiefs; they
heard him with silent disdain, although fresh troops were sent from France, and
De Denonville had thus an army with which he could have struck a crushing
blow at the Iroquois confederacy. De Denonville had recourse to an act dis-
graceful to his nation, and certain to excite irreconcilable hatred in the Iroquois.
Through the agency of Father Lamberville, missionary in the Iroquois country,
he enticed a number of Iroquois chiefs to a conference, had them seized, put in
chains, and sent them to France to serve &s the king's galley slaves.
A savage hatred was thus aroused in the minds of the Iroquois. Far and
wide they prepared to revenge this breach of faith. With a capricious gener-
osity seldom recorded in their annals, they sent Father Lamberville, who they
knew had been no accomplice in the kidnapping, with the other " men of the
black robe ** who had missions among them, safe to Montreal King Louis was
ashamed of the breach of international laws, and sent back some other Iroquois
prisoners whom De Denonville forwarded. Denonville took the field but accom-
plished nothing. The colonists, knowing that determined action alone could
check the Iroquois, watched with angry discontent Denonville's inaction. Mean-
while, as the enemy seemed on their part to be inactive, it was hoped that the
restoration of their chiefs had pacified them ; but the black cloud was gathering,
soon to burst with the deadliest blow that had yet fallen on New France.
The summer evening had fallen peaceably on the meadows and gardens of
Lachine ; the cattle had been driven }iome ; all was still in the little village, in
whose quaint wooden cottages the hardworking farmers slept sound, wife and
children secure beside them. But late in the night a storm of rain and hail blew
from the lake, and during the storm, fourteen hundred Iroquois, their faces
smeared with war paint, disembarked from their canoes. Silently they sur-
rounded every house in the village ; with morning dawn the war-whoop was
laised, and the inhabitants woke to their doom ; each house was set on fire ; the
inmates, if they tried to escape, were captured for further torture. Women and
children as they leaped from the flames were speared amid loud laughter. Then
b^an the pillage of the stores, then a feast and orgies held around the opened
brandy casks of the Montreal merchants. Had but a small force of Frenchmen
come to the resuue, the drunken wolves might have been slaughtered like swine.
At nightfall they withdrew to the opposite shore, first uttering yells repeated
ninety times to signify the number of prisoners they were carrying away for
torture.
All through that fearful night the terrified inhabitants could see on the
opposite shore the kindled fires and moving figures, for what purposes of
nameless horrors they knew too well.
The colony seemed paralyzed by this massacre. French power seemed
limited to Montreal, Quebec, Three Eivers, and a few fortified posts. The
fort built at Cataraqui in Frontenac's time was blown up as untenable. De
Denonville gave orders that no attack should be made in reprisal, though
several opportunities presented themselves. Denonville was at once recalled,
and, happily for New France, the Count de Frontenac was sent to replace him.
On October 18, 1689, Frontenac landed at Quebec, and was received with the
greatest joy, especially, strange to say, by his old opponents the Jesuits, who
2
18 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
had long been anxious for his recall In the meantime, under William and
Mary, England had declared war against France, so that to strike a double
blow at the Erijglish, as well as the Indian enemies of France, Frontenac
invaded their colonial territories with three bodies of troops. The first of these
surprised and burned Schenectady on the border of New York, and put the
inhabitants to the sword. The second marched from Three Rivers upon New
Hampshire, and on their return joined forces with the Acadian militia, who
formed the third division. They then possessed themselves of Kaskebe, a for-
tified town on the seacoast of Maine.
In reprisal the English sent out two squadrons : one took possession of
Port Boyal and Acadia ; the other sailed from Boston with a considerable
force of marines to attack Quebec. A land force marched from New York
against Montreal. The land expedition, under Sir William Phipps, was a
failure through want of supplies and from the vacillation of the Indian allies.
But Count Frontenac showed such energy in defending Quebec, which was
now the most f^trongly fortified place in the north, that the British had to
retire baffled, leaving their cannon.
The Iroquois were now tired of fighting, and permitted Frontenac to rebuild
the fort at Cataraqui without hindrance ; but to teach them a further lesson,
another force was sent into their country to bum villages and destroy grain.
The war with England, " King William's War," ended with the Treaty of Eys-
wick in 1697, by which France retained Canada, Cape Breton and the Lauren-
tian Islands: Newfoundland, Acadia, and the Hudson Bay territory were
ceded to Britain. The loss of these latter was in no way attributable to the
people of New France, but to the reverses which the ambition of King Louis
had brought upou him in his contest with England and her allies. In the
fullness of fame De Frontenac died, 78 years .old, at Quebec, where he lies
buried.
Under his successor, De Callieres, a general meeting of the Iroquois and
other chiefs was held at Montreal. After the usual speeches and feasting,
a treaty of peace and alliance was signed by the chiefs, who, as they could not
write, made a picture of the animal which bis tribe took for its sign or totem,
a wolf, a bear, or porcupine. This took place in 1701.
In 1703 the Marquis de Vaudreuil came to Canada as Governor, when
although " Queen Anne's War " broke out between England and France, Canada
enjoyed all the blessings of peace. The Iroquois also ceased their incursions.
It was found necessary, however, to add considerably to the strength of the
fortifications of Quebec and Montreal. An attempt was made by the English
under General Nicholson to march from Albany to the Canadian frontier, but
they returned home on hearing that the fleet sent from England to co-operate
with their movement had been wrecked. Great was the joy of the Quebec
people, who volunteered a large s^um towards adding to the defences. This
war ended with the peace of Utrecht, by which Canada was, as before, retained
by France.
In 1717 another tribe, the Tuscaroras, joined the Iroquois, who since then
have been known as the Six Nation Indians. Many reforms were carried out
by De Vaudreuil, and the colony under his rule grew in prosperity and popula-
tion ; he divided the entire country into 82 parishes, and did much to reform
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 19
and facilitate the administration of justice. The population of Canada now
amounted te 25,000. Commerce with France had veiy much increased. Canada
sent fuTs, lumber, tobacco, grain, peas, and pork ; receiving in exchange wine,
brandy, and dry goods. There was no system of education, but the numerous
convents to some degree supplied that deficiency.
In 1726 Baron de Beauharnois succeeded as Governor to Vaudreuil, who had
died after a rule of twenty-one years. The Indians were now no longer
formidable ; they lived on friendly terms with the French settlers, and the
labours and martyrdom of the missionaries were bearing rich fruit 'in the great
change brought about in the conduct and manners of their converts. In 1731
some traders from Montreal explored the region now known as Manitoba, and
built a trading fort near where Winnipeg now stands. They also went as far as
the Sockv Mountaina
The Conquest of Canada
The Marquis de la Jonquiere, Admiral of France, having been defeated and
captured in an engagement at sea by the English, the Count de la Galissonniere
was appointed until his release could be enected. Just before the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, ended the war which had broken out again between
England and France in 1745, this Governor had the boundaries of the
French colonial possessions defined by sending an officer, with three hundred
men, who marked the limit from Detroit, running south-east as far as the
Ohio River, leaded tablets, bearing inscriptions, being buried at intervals along
the line. In 1745 this Governor succeeded in inducing many of the French
inhabitants of Acadia to remove to Isle St. Jean, now rrince Edward Island.
Their place was supplied by three thousand eight hundred colonists sent from
England by the Earl of Halifax, in honour of whom the city then founded
was called Halifax. In 1749 De la Jonquiere, being released, came out to
Quebec as Governor. He was, unlike the noble-minded men who had preceded
him since Count Frontenac, of a grasping and mean disposition. His last
days were embittered by quarrels with the Jesuits, who transmitted such
accounts of his unfair dealing to France that he would have been recalled
but that he died at Quebec, where he was buried beside Frontenac and Vau-
dreuil, 1752.
In this Governor's time, and as a military counterpoise to Fort Oswego,
acquired by the English, a fortified post was constructed on Lake Ontario,
caljed Baioulle, after the French Minister of Marine, or by its Indian name,
Toronto, " the harbour." Scarce any remains of it can now be traced, except
a mound, where there was once a rampart. Its site was west of the present
city, near the Toronto Exhibition grounds.
The Marquis Duquesne de Menneville next held office. It was plain that
war between France and England was imminent, and that the battle-ground
would be either Canada or the New England colonies. Munitions of war,
artillery, and soldiers were sent from France in abundance. It was the wish of
Duquesne, as it had been of the ablest French politicians, since the rapid and
vigorous advance to power of the English colonies, to connect Canada with
Louisiana and the French possessions in the south, and thus prevent the
English colonies from advancing westward.
20 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
With this view Dnquesne sent a detachment of soldiers to fortify posts on
the Ohio and the Alleghauies. The Governor of Virginia considered this an
encroachment by the French on English territory, and with the aid of the
Virginian House of Burgesses, raised a body of militia, which was sent to
hold the forks of the Ohio and the Monongahela. They were under the com-
mand of a young Virginian surveyor and soldier, who had several years before
traversed all that region on a surveying expedition. They had began to work
at constructing a fort, when the Frendh troops arrived in superior force and
drove them away. The French finished the work, and named the place Fort
Duquesne. Washington then erected a post, which he named Fort Necessity,
but from the small force at his command he was compelled to surrender it.
Thus began what is called the "French War," but as the formal declaration of
hostilities broke out in 1756, it is known in English history as the Seven
Years' War.
The Iroquois Indians wavered much as to which side they would take,
wishing, as usual, to take the part of the winners. Washington, on his sur-
veying expedition shortly before this, had come into contact with these
Indians, and had a narrow escape of his life. At length, however, the savages
made up their minds that the sword of King George would weigh heaviest in
the scale, and sided with the British.
Duquesne's efforts at reform, and his devotion to the real interests of the
colony, made him many enemies. But, in fact, public morality had fallen to a
very low ebb in New France. The pay given to (public oflScers was so small
and so irregularly paid, that they considered themselves justified in reimbursing
themselves at the public expense. Then the Governors-General held a
monopoly of granting licenses to* 3ell spirits to the Indians, which of course
brought enormous piofits. The finances were in hopeless confusion, the Indian
trade was in the hands of corrupt officials. The Intendants had the greatest
opporttmities of all for enriching themselves at the public expense ; and the
woi-st of all Intendants — he who has been well called by our Lower Canadian
historian, Garneau, " the evil genius of Canada " — was now in power. It is on
record that in the course of his corrupt administration this man amassed no
less a sum than £400,000 sterling.
Meanwhile preparations for war went on. The French were at a disadvantage
because of the bankrupt condition of the treasury of Louis XV. The Iroquois
would be a formidable addition to the English arms ; still, there were sufficient
troops in Canada, and a large number of the friendly Indiana were reliable. ^
On word being sent to the colonies to prepare for hostilities, a congress of the
colonials was held, at which Benjamin Franklin proposed a confederation of the
colonies. His project was not, however, entertained ; but the colonial militia
were armed and tmined, and the Mother Country sent out subsidies, and two
regiments under General Braddock, who had seen service in the late wars under
the Duke of Cumberland.
Mortified at the annoyance caused by Bigot and others, Duquesne requested
to bvf recalled, in order to re-enter the naval service. His successor, the last
Frt iich Governor of Canada, was Pierre Rigaud, Alarquis de VaudreuiL His
father, the Vaudreuil whose rule had been so beneficial, was very imlike the son.
He allowed wheat to be shipped off to the West Indies for the benefit of Bigot
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 21
and other officials ; the fur trade was getting poorer, all the men in the colony
were under arms, and in consequence agricultural work of the most necessary
kind was left undone. There was not sufficient food ; what there was rose to
starvation prices. The people not unjustly laid the blame of all upon the
GoTemment, and it was probably the English conquest alone which saved New
France from a miniature French ilevolution.
But news came that Braddock*s expedition, his two English regiments and
the Colonial Militia, had been surprised amid the woods by a party of French
and Indians. Braddock was killed, and the few who escaped were enabled to
retreat only by the coolness and courage of Colonel Washington. This gave
heart to the French, and secured the support of their Indian allies. An
English expedition failed to take Fort Niagara. The French, on the other
hand, when from their entrenchments at Ticonderoga they attacked the Eng-
lish position on Lake George, were routed with the loss of their general. In
1756, Lonis XV. sent out the Marquis de Montcalm as commander-in-chief
for Canada. This gallant defender of a hopeless cause was the representative
of one of the oldest families in the French noblesse. He had served with
honour in many of the European wars. Ue brought to Canada a large body
of reinforcements, with provisions and abundant supplies of arms and ammu-
nition. With him came the Chevalier, afterwards Duke de Levis, also AL De
Bougainville, who was destined to win fame in future years as a navigator.
At the same time the British Government sent out, as commander-in-chief, the
Earl of Loudon, with a force of regular troops. The first success was with
Montcalm, who reduced and demolished the forts at Ontario and Oswego. It
is to be regretted that the murder of many of the English captured on this
occasion should slain an illustrious name. All along the English colonial
frontier now raged the horrors of an Indian war. No farm house, no village
on the border of New England or Maine, was safe from the scalping-knives of
Indians, or of Canadians as savage as Indians. Fort Henry too was captured
by Montcalm, and the Iroquois, false as ever to unfortunate allies, were on the
point of deserting to the Frenph» From this, however, they were restrained
by the influence of William Johnson, afterwards so distinguished by the suc-
cess achieved by the force under his command in the military operations on
Lake George. This extraordinary man held a position with regard to the
Indians without parallel among English-speaking men of any position in
society. Among the French colonists it was common enough that a gentle-
man of good lineage should marry an Indian wife. Such marriages were, as
a rule, happy, and from them are descended some of the best known families
in French Canada. But most Englishmen would have thought it a degrada-
tion to admit a daughter of the red race to a higher position than concubinage.
William Johnson, however, lived among the Iroquois, and had so perfectly
assimilated their language and customs, that they regarded him as one of
themselves, a great chief, a bold rider, a sure marksman, powerful on the war-
path and in the council. He was to them a combination of Achilles and
Ulysses.
In order to protect the position he had won, Johnson built a fort, which he
named Fort William Henry. But notwithstanding this success, it was felt that
during the years 1755-1756 the advantage had been mainly on the side of
France.
22 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Meanwhile, distress increased throughout Canada. Bigot and his accom-
plices made the ruin of their countrymen the extortioner's opportunity.
" Bigot," Montcalm wrote, ** has got the whole trade of the colony in his hands.
He orders from France whatever Canada is likely to need, and in the name of
the ' great society,' which consists of himself and his creatures, he retails the
public stores at whatever price he chooses to put upon them." Meantime,
famine was pressing hard the women and children whose bread-winners were
fighting with Montcalm's army. Even in the cities articles of food had risen in
price a hundred and fifty per cent. In Quebec the whole population were put
on starvation allowance, and it was a common thing to see people fainting in the
city streets from the want of food. Meanwhile, the extreme scarcity of specie
gave Bigot an excuse for issuing paper money, by which device he robbed the
colony wholesale. It was repudiated by Louis XV. several years afterwards. In
fact, everyone among the officials saw that the coming of the British armies
was the beginning of the end, and made haste to get rich while there was yet
time. It is satisfactory to know that Bigot, on his return to France, was thrown
into^the Bastile, and afterwards exiled.
A change of Government meantime was taking place in England. The un-
popular Court favourite, Lord Bute, was displaced, and the great and liberal-
minded statesman, William Pitt, became Prime Minister. The public spirit of
England, depressed by the late reverses in Canada, responded to his call, and
the nation stood united as one man in the resolve that, cost what it would, the
French should be driven from North America. Supplies were cheerfully voted,
fleets and armies sent forth to conquer.
In France a very different spirit prevailed. The infamous Madame de
Pompadour, the chief mistress in the French King's harem, hated Canada. It
cost more than it was worth, she said. Money was sent out there which could
have been more pleasantly spent in Paris. And here was the Governor of
Canada again piteously asking for money and soldiers. He was refused, for
Madame so willed it. That was the Reign of Prostitution, and it was succeeded
by the Reign of Terror.
At this time a fleet was sent against Nova Scotia and Cape Breton under
Admiral Boscawen, with General Amherst, and a young officer, whose genius
Mr. Pitt's sagacity had discerned under a modest studious demeanour and a
fragile constitution. They sailed for Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Louis-
burg was taken after a determined resistance by M. De la Tour, the Gov-
ernor. The fortifications were in a state all but nrinous; the walls between
the bastions had crumbled away ; there was but a single bombproof casemate
and one magazine. The chief defence of the place was the harbour, which
could be easily barred against an enemy's entrance, while, even should an
entrance be effected, the difficulty of disembarking troops was great. The
Governor took measures to avail himself of these natural advantages, but the
British by a feint effected a landing. Wolfe, by a remarkable anticipation of
his tactics at Quebec, with a hundred men scaled a height hitherto thought inac-
cessible, and undismayed by the waves that threatened to dash their boats on
the rocks, and facing the storm of flame and lead, they effected an orderly
debarkation, and took up a position commanding the town. For days the
defenders of Louisburg returned the fire of the batteries erected by the English,.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 23
and fought with determined courage in sortie after sortie. Madame De la Tour,
a high-bom lady, the Governor's wife, passed and repassed among the batteries
amid the storm of shot and shell to cheer her country's soldiers. But in vain ;
the Governor, at the prayer of the town's people, who feared a general assault by
the English general, and that their homes would be given up to the horrors of
a sack, consented to capitulate. Honourable terms were given to these brave men ;
and thus did Louisbui^, with the whole of Cape Breton and Prince Edward, pass
into the hands of Great Britain.
Meanwhile General Abercromby, who had succeeded the less capabls Loudon,
advanced on the chain of forts which were the key to the St Lawrence. He
had with him the largest army that had ever gathered in America, over six
thousand regular troops and nine thousand militia. Montcalm, to meet the
British advance, moved from Carillon towards Lake George. A skirmish took
place in which the gallant Lord Howe lost his life. Montcalm, perceiving the
intention of Abercromby to move on Canada by Carillon, defiled his troops in
that direction — it was there he had determined to give battle. His force was
much inferior in numbers, his men were ill fed and dispirited, yet, like the
Spartan hero of old, he resolved not to give up the pass that protected his
country without a struggle.
The outlet of Lake George, called La Chute Eiver, and Lake Champlain, into
which it flows, form a triangle, called Carillon, on the river side of which the
banks form a steep precipice, while the land slopes gently towards the lake.
At the apex of the triangle was a small fort commanding the water approach.
On this position Montcalm entrenched his army ; his men worked with a will ;
the front of their lines was defended by a line of felled trees whose truncated
branches, stripped of their leaves and pointing outwards, constituted a sort of
natural chevaux-de-frise. On Abercromby's observing Montcalm's movement,
he was misled by information received from prisoners into supposing that
Montcalm's object in thus intrenching his force was to gain time, as he expected
large reinforcements. Under this mistaken impression Abercromby resolved to
storm the intrenched position at once. He led the attack with four columns,
supported by armed barges on the river. The British advanced supported by
a heavy fire, to which the French, by Montcalm's order, did not reply till the
enemy had come within three hundred yards. He was well obeyed. As the
British line reached the appointed distance the deadly volley flashed upon the
assailants, so that, brave as they were, their line reeled before it in disorder.
Meantime the cannon from the fort had sunk the barges advancing to support
Abercromby from the river. Again the brave English reformed their ranks,
and sprang to the attack, again to be repulsed. With the dogged courage
that "does not know when it is beaten," the British twice returned to climb the
slope ; later in the day, Abercrotiaby advanced to the assault with his
whole army, each time to be swept back by the deadly rain of bullets. At
length the defeat was complete, great, as had been the gallantry shown by the
British, especially by the Highlanders under Lord John Murray. For Montcalm
it was a glorious victory. With a force of 3,600 men lie had beaten back in
utter rout a well appointed army of 15,000. All through the battle he had
thrown himself where the fight was hottest, supporting every weak point as it
was hard pressed.
24 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Abercromby's defeat was ia part redeemed to the British by the surprise of
Fort Frontenac, successfully accomplished by Colonel Bradstreet about the
same time. The fort was only held by 70, the British force was 3,000, but
the French Commandant, M. de Noyau, refused to surrender till shelled out by
the British mortars. Bradstreet released his prisoners and demolished the
fort, which was a most important acquisition, the key to Lake Ontario.
During the year 1758, though the material advantages were on the side of the
British, the military glory of Montcalm was incomparably greater.
Meantime the shadow of famine and financial ruin grew darker over New
France. Food became even more scarce than the year before. It is painful
to read the description of the prevailing destitution, of the want of supplies
for his men, of the patient courage with which the soldiers of Canada fought,
though unpaid and scarce fed. He passionately begged for more troops. In
vain. The France to which he appealed was ruled by a harlot.
The British well knew the dissensions and destitution that prevail < o
Canada, and wisely resolved to strike a blow at the centres of the French
power. Already Fort Duquesne had fallen into the hands of General Forbes.
It was well known to the French ministry that the British forces far outnum-
bered what France could possibly bring into the field. Again and again did
Montcalm plead with the selfish voluptuary who wore the crown of St. Louis
the urgent need of help. The Canadian colonists, to the number of ten thou-
.sand, stood to their arms in the face of famine. Neither men, money, nor
food were sent from France.
Mr. Pitt had devised a plan for a simultaneous attack on the three most
vital points of New France — Niagara, Montreal and Quebec. General
Amherst drove the French, first from Ticonderoga, then from Crown Point,
but was prevented by the approach of winter from attempting further oper-
ations. At the same time. Sir William Johnson, who had been knighted by
the English king for his victory over the French in 1755, attacked Niagara.
Here aJso the French were defeated, and the ancient fort, whose ruins are
still among the sights of one of our pleasantest summer resorts, passed into
the hands of the British.
In February, a fleet under the command of Admiral Saunders sailed from
England for Quebec, the chief command being assigned, by Mr. Pitt's special
choice, to Major-General Wolfe. The latter was a young officer, the son of a
distinguished soldier of the armies which had fought under Marlborough. Of
thin, slight figure, with more of the student than the warrior both in his dis-
position and appearance, with a refinement and delicacy of taste only too
alien to the manners of the " army from Flanders" which he was called on to
command, Wolfe had yet the instinct of genius, already tested at Louisburg,
and appreciated by the great minister who redeemed the future of English
liberty. The fleet touched at Nova Scotia for reinforcements, and on July 25
8,000 men were landed on the Island of Orleans.
Within the city founded by Champlain, and consecrated by the sainted
founders of the Ursulines, were Montcalm and 12,000 men. Everything was
against them ; insufficient food, clothing and ammunition, and the enemy's
force so overwhelming that it was acknowledged by both Bigot and Montcalm
that Canada could not be held for another year. Already the English artillery
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 25
had occupied Point Levis, and were cannonading the lower part of the city
with their heavy ordnance. There is something touching in the loyalty of
these French colonists to a country and a king who desired nothing better
than to get rid of them.
Tlie Eiver St. Lawrence seems to dwarf everything else except Montreal and
Quebec But Quebec can assert its own individuality even against Canada's
mightiest ri^r. On the evening of July 1, Wolfe sailed past Cape Diamond
almost within musket shot of the city, enjoying the tranquU beauty of the scene,
and from time to time reading a newly published poem by one Mr. Gray,, of
Cambridge, entitled " An Elegy in a Country Churchyard." There were probably
few officers under his command who could have shared his tastes.
For five weeks, Wolfe's army lay inactive before Quebec. At last a most ill-
advised attempt was made to force the French intrenchments above the Mont-
morency at Beauport ; it was a movement which had nothing but its audacity
to recommend it. And lastly, a Colonel Townshend devised a plan of scaling
the heights above Quebec by a narrow winding pass which had been discovered,
and when Wolfe had risen from his sick-bed this plan was generally considered
to be worth trying. It suited well with the Generars adventurous disposition.
Had the geese that saved the Roman Capitol been on the scene when company
after company climbed the narrow stairs that skirts the precipice, the English con-
quest might have been delayed though not averted. But this time Wolfe's rash
move succeeded Begiment after regiment stood formed in battle array. The
only question was, what were they to do ? They had no artillery wherewith to
attack a fortified city, and were in fact at the mercy of Montcalm's troops, and
out of the reach of support from their own fleet, which was now at Cape Rouge.
But by some inexplicable impulse, Montcalm played into the hands of the
enemy by meeting them in the open field. A desperate struggle ensued, fought
mostly at the bayonet point ; at four in the afternoon it was found that the am-
munition of the French was exhaasted, and that the brave Montcalm was mortally
wounded. Wolfe too was shot, and died on the battlefield. Montcalm was
carried to the convent of the Ursulines ; there, in the garden where Marie de 1' In-
carnation and Madame de la Peltrie gathered the white roses, the conqueror of
Carillon rests.
Four days after the battle on the plains of Abraham, Quebec was surrendered
to the English. The garrison was allowed to march out with the honours of
war, and were conveyed to the nearest port in France.
Meantime the French force at Montreal, numbering upwards of ten thousand,
moved upon Quebec, and General Murray, who had been left in command of the
British army at Quebec, repeated Montcalm's mistake ot meeting a superior force
in the open field. The result was that the English were defeated with great
loss, but were able to secure their retreat within the city. The French were
preparing to besiege Quebec when the British fleet came to < its relief. During
the night.of May 16, 1760, the French army raised the siege of Quebec, having
thrown its artillery into the St. Lawrence.
With the abandonment of the last siege of Quebec ended the resistance of
French Canada to the English conquest. The men of the Canadian Militia
returned to their homes to share with the French soldiers billeted upon them
the scanty food that was left. Not only had the French King refused to send
26 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
soldiers, but his bankrupt treasury was even reduced to the meanness of refus-
ing to repay the advances which the Canadian colonists had made to the Go-
vernment. The paper money put into circulation by Bigot was worthless, and
there was no other currency in circulation. The French General, M. de Levis,
wrote to King Louis XV. : " The paper money is entirely discredited, and the
people are in despair about it. They have sacrificed their all for the conserva-
tion of Canada ; now they find themselves ruined, resourceless."
Even gunpowder had failed when three large armies were about to move on
Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers.
The French Canadian colonists had loyally upheld the white flag of Bourbon
France till food and the materials for fighting failed. While King Louis threw
diamonds to the dansenses of the Pare au Cerfs, the descendants of the Breton
and Norman settlers in Canada, amid starvation, the oppression of unjust taxes,
and the presence of a rich and well-equipped enemy, upheld to the last the
supremacy of the ungrateful Mother Country. At last even Bigot and Vaudreuil
said that the time for capitulation had come.
On September 8, 1766, Canada passed under the rule of Britain. Madame de
Pompadour laughed at the cession of a few thousand acres of ice. But never
did a subjugated people receive better terms. They were not only guaranteed
immunity from all injury or retaliation, but free exercise of their religion, and
what amounted to a virtual establishment of the Catholic Church, with all its
religious organizations. The oiSScers of the French army who had been in charge
of Detroit and other posts withdrew to Europe. The small number of these —
1 85 officers, 2,400 soldiers — shows how slight were the efforts made by France
to retain a colony, of which, when leaviu^if Canada, M. de Vaudreuil wrote :
" With these beautiful and vast countries France loses 70,000 inhabitants of a
rare .quality, a i'ace of people unequalled for their docility, bravery and loyalty.
The vexatious they have suffered for many years, more especially during the five
years preceding the reduction of Quebec, all without a murmur, or importuning
their King for relief, sufficiently manifest their perfect submissiveness."
So Canada changed masters after a century and a half of French rule. The
French clergj' had conquered heathenism. The French, or rather the native
Canadian army, had held its own against the English troops, which out-
numbered it tenfold, from Louisburg to Lake Erie.
The Chevalier de Levis returned with the remnant of Montcalm s army to
France, when he was created a Duke, and lived in great honour and prosperity.
His letters to the French Minister pay a marked tribute to the soldier-like
qualities of the native Canadian Militia. Had the Canadians been matched on
equal terms with Mr. Pitt's well-fed and well-paid soldiers, had the English
not numbered ten to their one, the result might have been otherwise.
Thus was virtually decided the question as to whether England oj France
should possess a country as large as half the European continent. Either
nation was worthily represented by the opposing chiefs. It is to be hoped that
war will be banished from the future of our country. Should it be otherwise,
there can be no nobler traditions of heroism than those associated with the
names of Wolfe and Montcalm.
The command of the French army now devolved on the Chevalier de Levis,
an officer of great ability, who had been Montcalm's moat trusted lieutenant.
THE DOMLS^UN OF CANADA. 27
His wish was to advance, under cover of the woods, on the English position'
but this was frustrated by the sudden and unexpected capitulation of Quebec,
now almost reduced to a heap of ruins by the long-continued bombardment
Thus closed the eventful campaign of 1759.
Great was the rejoicing in England over this important conquest, for
although the contest was continued for some time in Canada, the decisive
blow had been struck, and Canadian history has no further concern with the
details of a lost cause. If France had been willing to help New France in
her determined resistance to the English invasion, the contest might have
ended otherwise: But the corrupt French Government was already bankrupt.
The worn out noblesse, cUnging to their privilege of exemption from taxation,
were no worthy peers of Montcalm or De Levis. On September 8, 1760, the
capitulation was signed which placed Canada under British rule. The free
exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the subjugated people. Certain
religious orders were secured in the possession of their property and privi-
leges ; the seigneurs retained their feudal rights. M. de Vaudrueil and M. de
Levis returned to France ; the latter served with distinction in the French
army, was created a Duke, and died in 1787, while presiding at one of their
provincial meetings which preceded' the Eevolution, at Arras, the city of
Bobespierre. Madame de Pompadour and her creatures rejoiced over the loss
of Canada. " The English have gained a few thousand acres of ice.'' Strange
to say, Voltaire, in his luxurious exile at Ferney, celebrated the capitulation
of Quebec with a banquet. The philosopher foresaw in the loss to France an
incalculable gain to humanity. He foresaw the American Eevolution and all
its train of results, yet perhaps undeveloped, in Europe.
Canada Dubing the American Eevolution.
The next twenty years were passed under a military government, which,
however, gave the Canadians a security and freedom from the txil^ of warfare
and conscription long unknown to them. The British rule became identified
with peace and prosperity. Never before had the Canadian people enjoyed
such advantages. Their numbers, on the capitulation of Quebec, were esti-
mated at 69,275, and the Christianized Indians at 7,400. Now, at last, the
fraudulent transactions of the late Government were brought to light ; frauds,
it must be remembered, by which not the French King, who simply repudiated
his debts, but every farmer* who had used the paper money circulated in the
French King's name, had to suffer. The ruin, worse than that of war, inflicted
on Canada by this royal fraud is estimated at £3,000,000.
Shortly after the capitulation, and under the military rule of General
Murray, some of the French officers left in Canada succeeded in persuading
an Ottawa chief named Pontiac to attack the British posts at Detroit and the
other frontier posts. Pontiac, like Tecumseh and Thayendanegea, was one of
those remarkable men who seem to have overstepped the gulf between savagery
and civilization. In his plan for a simultaneous attack on every British out-
post, from T^ke Michigan to Niagara, he showed a power of combination and
a faculty for planning extensive operations rarely exhibited by his people.
His measures lor supplying his army with provisions, his wisdom in protect-
»"\
28 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
ing the farmers from his marauding followers, his issue of a birch-bark cur-
rency, faithfully redeemed with its equivalent in furs, mark this wonderful
savage as one of those figures which rebuke our civilized contempt for their
race. But with all his gifts, Pontiac was an Indian ; his tactics were those of
his race. A combined movement was to be made on every English post,
Pontiac to lead bv surprising Detroit. Fortunately, the English commandant
had an intrigue with an Indian girl, who gave him warning of the intended
surprise. But many of the other forts were taken, with the usual atrocities.
One English lady, the wife of an officer, was struck in the face with the reek-
ing scalp of her hiLsband. She escaped by some miracle, and returned to the
ruins of her home to bury her husband's body and then seek refuge in Detroit.
Never in the history of Indian warfare was an attack on the power of the
white men so ably conceived and so steadily carried out as that which the
brilliant American historian, Mr. Parkinson, has well designated " The Conspi-
racy of Pontiac." But it failed. The Indian scalping-knife was no match
for the British bayonet. Wherever the outposts were weak, where a few men
and a few women could be surprised, the Indians succeeded. But Detroit,
Niagara and Pittsburg repulsed every assault of the savages. In 1764,
General Bradstreet relieved the siege of Pittsburg. Pontiac lost credit with
his followers, and had to fly from Canada. He sought shelter among the
Indians of Illinois, and this last chief of independent Indian warfare died
at the hands of one of his tribe in a drunken quarrel.
The growing prosperity of Canada did much to reconcile the people to
English rule, although there was some discontent at the continuance of mili-
tary government, and the substitution of English for French law. It is difficult
to ascertain the true condition of public opinion in Canada during the latter
part of the decade which succeeded the conquest. It is true that the first
issue of the Quebec Gazette appeared on June 21, 1764, containing printed
matter in English as well as French, but its publisher was enjoined to confine
its columns to a mere summary of events, no editorial comment being allowed.
The French Canadians were very much depressed by the heavy loss caused by
the repudiation of Bigot's paper currency. They also felt severely the abro-
gation of their language and of the native legal forms and courts, and the
virtual exclusion oi those professing the Catholic religion from office. In
1765 there were in Canada 70.000 Catholics to 500 Protestant English. The
latter from the first formed a party hostile to French interests, and indisposed
to permit any measures of religious toleration. General Murray, who may
be regarded as the first Governor-General, uniformly sided with the cause of
the French Canadians, and endeavoured to secure them in the possession of
what liberty the laws allowed. He represented to the English mmistry the
absurdity of choosing all the public officials from the ranks of a small Pro-
testant minority, mostly traders and men who were uneducated, and that
allowing these persons to assume supremacy as a privileged class must alien-
ate the French, especially the seigneurs. Every year the influx of colonists
of British blood continued to increase. As a result of this, we flnd that in
1771, 471,000 bushels of wheat were exported, an amount double that of any
former year.
The British colonists desired to Anglicize everything ; to force on the
minority their own church, language and customs. . Had England permitted
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 29
they would have treated the Canadians much as the Anglo-Irish Protestants
had treated the CSatholic Celts, and with the same odious and bitter results.
Their policy of persecution was thwarted by the good sense of Governor
Murray, who incurred thereby their bitter hatfed To sudi a degree was
this carried that the home authorities were forced to recall him. In one of
the representative assemblies which were allowed to meet, as occasion arose,
on petition from the people, Murray allowed Soman Catholics to sit, where-
upon iierce attacks were made on his personal character. He went to England,
where he triumphantly vindicated his policy before a committee of the Privy
Council^ but Canada was to lose his valuable services. He returned to our
country no more. In 1766 Sir Guy Carleton was appointed Governor, and by
direction of the English ministry pursued Murray's policy o( conciliation to the
Canadians.
In 1770, reports furnished by Murray and Carleton were examined before a
commission empowered to investigate the condition of Canada, and such lawyers
as the able and tolerant-minded Wedderburn pleaded the right of Canadians
to enjoy entire toleration in religion, the exercise of their own laws and cus-
toms, except in criminal cases, and the use of their own language in all public
business.
In 1774, the celebrated " Quebec Act " was passed by the Imperial Parlia-
ment> by which the French Canadians were granted the jurisdiction of the old
French law, as laid down in the edicts of the French Kings and of the Colonial
Intendants. This law is founded mainly on the old Roman civil law, as codi-
fied by the Emperor Justinian, and is in many respects simpler and more in
accordance with free institutions than the EngUsh common law, which is essen-
tiaUy feudal. Judges were henceforth to be chosen from among the French
Canadians as being competent to administer these laws, and the French lan-
guage was directed to be used in all courts of law. But in criminal trials the
English criminal law was to be used, with its invariable accompaniment, trial
by jury. The Governor retained supreme executive power, but he was to be
assisted by a council appointed by himself, of not more than twenty-three nor
less than seventeen. All legislative power was given to the Govemor-in-
Count^il, except the right of taxation. Equality before the law, and the right
of holding office, was given to Catholics as well as Protestants. The feudal
privileges of the seigneurs were expressly guaranteed to them. By this well-
timed concession the British Government secured the support of the two ruling
classes in French Canada, the priests and the seigneurs, and Canada was retained
as a stronghold for English power amid the rising flood of American revolution.
It was not the native French Canadians but the British born protected settlers
who sympathized with the revolt.
We of English speech cannot but regard the British Canadian colonists as
in the right, in spite of their religious intolerance. It will be good for Canada
to be Anglicized and to have the reactionary influence of the Church and the
feudal system swept away; the day will come yet, we believe, when the
change will accomplish itself by the infiltration of French Canadians with
English-speaking settlers, and by the tide of modem ideas, with which a
medisaval theology is incompatibla But the time was not ripe for the change,
nor were these tne men to work it out. They wanted personal objects, not
30 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
political, and sought to overthrow Catholicity not in the interests of modem
enlightenment but of an established State Church. Before a genuine move-
ment for liberty could take place, the great American revolution had to run
its glorious course, and to bring with it to our country its consequence — the
settlement of English-speaking Canada.
The American Revolution.
The great political event of the century was the EevoluUon, which began
with the meeting of the first Congress, in September, 1774, whose direct result
was the French Bevolution and the revolt of the modem intellect against
feudalism throughout the world. The Congress, among other addresses, sent
one te Canada, inviting their co-operation. An Ainerican partisan, who
was also a Jesuit priest, was sent te win over the clergy te the cause of the
thirteen colonies. But, with a true instinct, the men of the black robe dis-
trusted a movement which based itself on the rights of man. England had
secured to them the supremacy of their Church, which a Republican success
might endanger. The seigneurs did not approve of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity. These two classes, the clergy and the colonial noblesse, adhered
steadfastly te British connection, and their influence over the uneducated
peasantry was such, that not even when later in the war their ancestral France
sided with the Republic, not when Lafayette appealed to their French loyalty
and to the old traditions, did any considerable section of them desire inde-
pendence. One reason of this, no doubt, was the fact that Congress, amon^
other statements of grievances against the British Government, had declaimed
against the toleration granted to Catholicity by the Quebec Act, thus making
an impression on the Canadian mind not to be effaced by any subsequent pro-
testations of good- will. There were other minor causes — ^the power of Britain,
the probable failure of the American armies, even the attempt to introduce a
paper currency among the people, who had suffered a loss not to be forgotten
ny Bigot's fraud ; and there is evidence that the Americans, true to the. self-
assertion of our English-speaking race, were apt to deal in a somewhat
peremptory manner with Canadian prejudices. But of the English-bom
settlers in Canada a considerable number sided with America.
In viewing from the stand-point of the Canada of to-day the events of that
great controversy, our sympathies must be given, and given without reserve,
to the men who led into the field the brave soldiers of New England, rather
than to the dull-witted Hanoverian King, who tried to play in America the
part of Charles the Fifth or Philip the Second. The present writer's grand-
father fought as a midshipman in a brigade from the Royal Navy in the
attacking force, which learned to respect the marksmanship of the Massa-
chusetts farmers, with their heavy pea-rifles, at Bunker's Hill. So few
generations separate us from scenes that have become part of the historic past
Some of the actors in the War of Independence pass over the stage of Canadian
history.
Congress resolved on an invasion of Canada from two directions, Lake
Cham plain and the Kennebec River. The rash and impetuous Arnold, the
Judas of American independence, offered to take all Canada with some ten
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 31
thousand men, having by his seizure of Fort Ticonderoga secured the command
of Lake Champlain and then of the entrance to the Laurentian Valley.
The Congress expected that the Canadians would be discontented with the
British rule, and only too glad to exercise their well proved valour against the
alien conquerors.
Three thousand men were gathered at Lake Champlain under the gallant
-General Montgomery, one of Wolfe's old officers at Quebec. Montgomery was
charged to pay every respect to the feelings of the French Canadians, and to
pay for all suppliea The latter, however, was not in his power, as the
Canadians refused to take the paper currency issued by Congress even at its
depreciated value. Montgomery was a leader well calculated to win the
confidence of the Canadians, whom he treated with the utmost courtesy. His
first move was on Fort Chambly, in which parish the majority of the inhabit-
ants sympathized with the Americans ; this and Fort St. John he took after
a determined resistance.
Meantime the Catholic Bishop of Quebec, true to absolutism even in a heretic
king, fulminated a proclamation exhorting all Catholics to be loyal to England
axxd to oppose the American invader. The seigneurs too, without exception,
«ided with the monarch who had secured to them their privileges. The
Chambly parishioners, however, joined an American force under Brown
and Livingston, which effected the reduction of the Fort of Chambly.
A daring attempt by Colonel Ethan Allen and Major Brown to surprise
Montreal failed from want of suflScient force to effect it. Allen was taken
prisoner and sent to England in irons. In the meantime, Colonel' Benedict
Arnold marched from Maine by the River Kennebec with over one thousand
men. He was so insufficiently provided with supplies throughout the difficult
and toilsome march, that his men subsisted mainly on what wUd fruit they could
gather. They were even glad to make use of dogs as food. On November 9,
1775, after some delay from want of transports to cross the river, and seeing
that he could not surprise the Quebec garrison, and that Colonel Maclean was
folly prepared to resist him, he marched up the north shore of the St. Lawrence
to Pointe anx Trembles. Sir Guy Carleton was, however, drawn by this
movement of Arnold's to repair at once with the only force at his disposal to
the defence of Quebec, on which Montgomery immediately took possession of
Montreal This brilliant success of the American aims was attained with
small loss of men, and greatly raised the prestige of the armies, whom an
English member of Parliament had described as " cowardly colonists." From
captured Montreal the victorious Montgomery marched east to effect a junction
with Arnold. The united armies proceeded to assault Quebec.
Carleton had a very inferior force wherewith to conduct the defence ; still,
he held the strongest fortress on the continent, and was well supplied with
provisions. The Americans lacked everything — food, clothing, artillery. Those
who are familiar with the soldier-like blue and grey uniforms of the United
States afmy of to-day, will hardly realize the appearance in 1775 of the soldiery
who invested Quebec. Unifonn properly called they had none ; a branch of
cedar worn in their hats, or a white kerchief tied round their neck, alone
distinguished the soldiers of Congress. Their ranks were at this time thinned
t>y an epidemic of small-pox, to meet which they had neither medical aid nor
i
32 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
hospital accommodation. And in addition to other annoyances, Montgomery
had to bear with the jealous and contentious temper of his subordinate, Arnold.
The night of the last day of 1775 was unusually dark, not a star visible, and
a heavy snow-storm falling. This was chosen by Montgomery for an attack on
the city with the entire force of his army, now not numbering more than thir-
teen hundred available men. Two divisions were formed and led by himself, the
other by Arnold. They were to send two detachments which should distract the
attention of the garrison by a feigned attack on St. John's gate, while they were
to penetrate the Lower Town, and thence mount to the citadeL But deserters
from their ranks had told the English governor that a sudden night attack was
intended, and the garrison were well on the watch. Montgomery had marched
with diflSculty over a narrow pass where but two men could walk abreast between
cliff and strand ; he had, however, reached the outer bander of Pres-de- Ville, but
on reacliing the next found his way barred by a battery of seven cannon, each
artilleryman expectant at his post with lighted match. There was but one hope :
followed by his ofi&cers and men, Montgomery charged the foe. When they were
but a few yards from the battery, the officer in command gave the word to fire.
Facing the storm of grape-shot and flame* Montgomery rushed on sword in hand.
But the terrible volley of grape-shot did its work. Montgomery lay dead, with
his two aides-de-camp, and a number of officers and men. Most of Arnold s
divisions were compelled to surrender. It is pleasant to record that the English
Governor had the remains of Montgomery interred with military honours.
Arnold was now appointed by " Congress, to the chief command in Canada,'"
and with his diminished and almost starving troops continued to invest Quebec.
The tactics of the British were those of Fabius ; they sustained the siege being
certain of reinforcements, which arrived early in May, when Arnold, who though
a soldier of some dash was not able to play the part of Wolfe, hastily retired
from besieging the capital of Canada.
When France resolved on aiding America with men and money, a French
expedition to Canada was contemplated ; but it never had any chance of success
in winning the support of the French colonists, who had learned to appreciate
the freedom and prosperity which they enjoyed under the mild rule of England,
as compared with the harsh military sway of a despotic monarch and his lieu-
tenants. With the war which ended in the victories which established the
freedom of the greatest of republics, Canadian history has no further connection.
The Settlement of English-Speaking Canada.
The keen-sightedness of Voltaire, who foresaw in the British conquest of
Canada the separation of the American colonies from Britain, and, as a further
result, a mortal blow to despotism in every part of the world, was fully justified
by events. Another consequence followed which the great prophet of persiflage
did not foresee, the formation in the wilderness between Montreal and Lake
Erie of a new Canada of Anglo-Saxon speech, indomitable energy, and in all
matters of religion and politics persistently asserting individual freedom.
The United Empire Loyalists were Americans as much as Washington or
Franklin. They were simply the Tories who opposed and were out-manoeuvred
by the Whigs in the great struggle for independence. The word " Loyalist "
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 33
hardly expresses the full significance of their position, for we may feel sure
that the heat of political rivalry on the part of the defeated Tories was a stronger
motive than mere sentimental devotion to the House of Brunswick. Party feel-
ing in the War of « Independence ran high ; either side did not scruple to use
the most extreme measures, and seemed only anxious to terrorise each other.
Among many instances told, in which extremely severe ill-usage was sustained
hy Tory leaders in American prisons, is that of the ancestor of the U. E. L.
family of Nagel, now settled in Burford, Brant County, in his case resulting
in death. Equally angry passions were aroused in the minds of those whose
properties had been seized by the partisans of the victorious republic. Lonr
after peace was proclaimed by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, a border warfare
was maintained by the ^fugees. This was not directly countenanced by the
more law-abiding citizens, but it went on unrebuked by those who should have
prevented such brigandage, and the use of the Indian scalping knife was not too
curiously investigated. It may be truly said that English-speaking Canada had
no existence before the immigiation of the Americans, which began in 1783.
Immediately after the conquest of Canada small detachments of English
soldiers, generally accompanied by their wives and children, were placed in
charge of the outposts and forts about the frontier. As far back as the attack
on the British posts by Pontiac, we have evidence that some thirty of such posts
were held by English soldiers with their families. These men invariably re-
ceived grants of land, as sparse beginnings of settlements were beginning to
form around Fort Frontenac, at Niagara, and along the water-highway of the
Ottawa. But inland, and through the trackless forest country north and west,
the pioneer's axe had yet to mark out the sites of the towns and cities of to-day,
most of which have arisen from the primitive grist mill and the group of log
huts built within living memory. The venerable William Byerson, who lately
died at the age of ninety-six, informed us that when serving as aide-de-camp
to a British general, he was sent on a message from the Biver St. Clair to
" little York," now Toronto, and his road through all that country was but an
Indian track, through unbroken forest. Of this settlement of Enghsh-speaking
Canada by these American refugees we possess ample details and family
monographs of well-known authority, nor are the personal memories and tradi-
tions of those who accompanied the first settlers into the wilderness yet extinct
in many parts of the Province. Indeed, it is one of the objects of a work like
the "History of Brant County" to collect and conserve these and other
invaluable materials for history.
Among the woods of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, along the winding
recesses of the Bay of Quinte, by the promontories and bays of Prince Edward
County, where harvest fields and harbours lie close together on every farm ;
westward along the Ontario shore wherever a good-sized river tempted settle-
ment ; among the peach orchards of Niagara, the emigration spread to the
number of ten thousand families. Thence the adventurous sons of the Loyalists
pushed their way inland ; in almost every town that was founded we can trace
their presence. They brought to Canada, as it were, the materials for a nation
ready-made. They were a race peculiarly well suited for the work of settle-
ment of the New Canada. Unlike immigrants from the Old Country, who have
to get acclimatized to the conditions of life in America, these men were the very
3
34 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
children of the soil, possessing a common type of nationality already different
from that of the Old World, more versatile, more self-reliant, at home with
horse and kine, with axe and ride, and by no means weaned, by the then condi-
tion of American civilization they had left behind them, from the primitive
habits of pioneer life.
We are able to realize with sufficient distinctness the lives of these first settlers
of our country. The British Government, under the wise directions of Haldi-
mand, a distinguished Swiss officer iu the English service, gave gmnts of land to
the new settlers, and endeavoured to supply farming implements, seed and pro-
visions for the first two years to all who lei^uired it But in many cases they were
most scantily equipped for a settlement, every acre of which had to be won by
their own labour from the forest. Years of hard toil were passed, iii which wife
and daughters often took part. Luxuries they had none ; food was often scant
and always coarse ; game was brought down by the ancient flint-lock pea-rifle,
for the use of a shot-gun was an effeminacy reserved for those more ambitious
sportsmen of a later day, who were contemptuously designated "snipe-shooters."
To have a mill within three miles distance was a godsend to the settler, who
rejoiced to carry thither on his shoulder his sack of grain. In many cases
recorded by early settlers much suffering was endured by actual want of food.
Yet the American refugee was at home in the Canadian forest. Unlike the
immigrant from the Old Country, he had not to undergo the painful process of
learning to shift for himself. He had nothing to learn of the secrets of wood-
craft ; he understood the log dwelling, the snake-fence, the birch canoe, the first
primitive furniture and cooking utensils. His wife could make moccasins and
coats from the abundant supply of peltry. Soon the persevering industry
began to teU. Crops came in abundantly fix)m what proved to be some of the finest
wheat-producing land in the world ; cattle, and the produce of dairy and garden,
throve. Here and there the general store, of a type still to be seen in remote
districts, arose beside the grist mill, and supplied finery for the girls' go-to-meet-
ing dress, and tea for the wife. Now and then some discharged soldier or other
" waif and stray " would be engaged in teaching, and a log hut be built by com-
mon effort for a school during the winter. In some such humble shelter as the
fragrant aisles of the summer woods, the almost gratuitous zeal of the Methodist
missionary would supply an intellectual stimulant especially needful in the
total absence of books or newspapers. Not seeking reward, these itinerant
preachers have gained a rich one — a preponderating; influence among religious
bodies in our division of Canada, so great that Methodism might almost be
regarded as our National Church.
In 1784, Governor Haldimand settled the celebrated Iroquois chief, Thayen-
danegea, with his Indians, who had followed the fortunes of Britain in the war, on
a reserve granted to them upon the banks of the Grand River. Full particulars
of the life and services of this remarkable man will be given elsewhere in the
present work. The total number of inhabitants of Canada, in 1783, is given as
125,000. Another reserve was assigned the Mohawk tribe of Iroquois on the
Bay of Quinte. When Christianized and civilized, the descendants of these most
ferocious of savages live in peaceful industry.
The last act of Governor Haldimand was to give to Canadians the inestim-
able privilege of a law of Habeas Corpus. He was a stern and austere ruler, apt
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 35
to suspect treachery in every one, but his management of the settlement of
Upper Canada in 1783-84 entitles him to be regarded with gratitude by all
Canadians.
He was succeeded by Heniy Hamilton, next by Colonel Hope, and then by
General Carleton, now Lord Dorchester ; indeed, our history for the next twenty
years is nothing more than a list of governors and lieutenant-governors. The
first territorial division of western Canada was made by Lord Dorchester, who
made foui districts, named Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nassau and Hesse, while
to the settlement of the American Loyalists in the Lower St. Lawrence was
given the name of Gaspe. Very soon the difference in habits, laws, and lan-
guages of the English-speaking and of the French colonists, made itself so
strongly felt, that in 1791 a Constitution was framed under the title of the
Constitutional Act, and the old Province of Quebec was divided into Upper
and Lower Canada by an imaginary line running from a point on Lake St.
Francis along the seigniories of Longueil and Vaudreuil to Point Fortune on the
Ottawa. In each Provicce there was to be both a Legislative Council and an
Assembly. The Council was to consist of life members chosen by the Crown
through the Governor-General — in Upper Canada to consist of not less than
seven, in the more numerously populated Lower Canada of not less than fifteen
members. The division of the two provinces wiis made with the hope of each
having a great majority in its own country. Bepresentative institutions were
introduced, at least in the germ, by the enactment that the laws in force should
be alterable by each Assembly at pleasure. The Act contained also a clause
as to the means of maintaining *' the Protestant religion" by a permanent
appropriation of certain portions of land. By the vague phrase *' the Protestant
religion," the Act no doubt contemplated the Church of England, and thus a
Stat'C Church, with all its attendant evils, might have been foisted on western
Canada, more especially from the analogous position of the French Canadian
Catholic establishment as guaranteed by treaty. This Act was the work of the
younger Pitt It was the result of the liberalizing nK)vement that assumed
increasing weight in Europe just before the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Mr. Lymburn^r, a Quebec colonist, was heard at the bar of the House of Com-
mons in behalf of some of the British settlers in eastern Canada, who took
exception to certain clauses of the bill, especially to one clause which contem-
plated the introduction into Canada of hereditary titles. To this they demurred
because in an infant colony such titles were objectionable, and quite imsuited
to the condition of Canadian life ; that clause was therefore struck out. An
Executive Council was also to sit in each Province, to consist of the G<)vernor
and eleven others nominated by the Crown. Thus, of the three legislative bodies,
one only was elective ; still a great advance had been made towards freedom,
as great as the infant colony could bear. The work of that generation was
practical, not political ; the builders of the nation had to fell the forests, and
the duty of electing members was dischar^^ed in a very primitive fashion. We
cannot but believe that Pitt framed the Act of 1791 with an honest desire to
give the Canadians free institutions. But the Constitution he framed with such
care became the instrument of much wrong-doing in the hands of an unscrupu-
lous oligarchy, for nearly half a century. In Lower Canada a clique of British
aristocrats oppressed the dearest interests of the French Canadians and of their
36 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
own countrymen, while race and creed antipathies intensified and envenomed
the contest to a degree never known in Upper Canada. But in our country,
though evil days came, and the struggle for responsible government was a bitter
one, these questions had not yet arisen before the minds of our people It
was the age of Ontario's settlement, a work well forwarded by the successive
governors ; and the more despotic the authority, the quicker and more directly
was the parcelling out of land to new colonists effected. At the division of the
provinces east and west of the Ottawa, the population of Lower Canada was
130,000, that of Upper Canada, 50,000.
On September 18, 1792, lieut-Govemor Simcoe, one of those admirable
administrators who are the foster-fathers of colonization, opened the first
Parliament of Upper Canada, numbering sixteen members, which met in a hut
within hearing of the mighty roar of Niagara. It was a gathering to which
we may well look back with sympathetic pride. Around them lay the bound-
less forest, before them the majestic torrent, not yet profaned by the impedU
menta of vulgar tourists. They were met in the little town of Newark, now
Niagara, which has been the scene of so many battles, in which the fortitude
of their race has been proved. The pioneers of Upper Canadian legislation
were earnest, laborious men. Their first act deserves notice ; it was to repeal
that part of the Quebec Act which enjoined the supremacy of French law in
civil suits, and that in all matters of legal controversv resort should be had to
the laws of England. The second session of the Parliament of Upper Canada
was memorable for the abolition, by a unanimous vote, of negro slavery. By
the 47th article of the capitulation the French Canadians had been allowed
to retain their slaves, and the poison of this ever-accursed traffic might have
continued in full play all through Lower Canada, but for the introduction,
through the settlement of Upper Canada, of the emancipating spirit of English
law.
Our Parliament, at a time when labour was priceless, when the forests had
to be fought against for dear life, determined to make the free air of their
forests more free, by " An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves."
Such was the first utterance of the voice of our national life, 'ever hereafter
to speak with no uncertain sound where the interests of freedom and humanity
demand expression. By another sensible enactment, Dorchester's absurd
German designation of the four districts were changed to the more suitable
names — Eastern or Johnstown, Western or Detroit, Home or Niagara, and
Midland or Kingston.
Upper Canadian Progress from 1792 to the War of 1812.
The Lower Canadian Parliament refused to follow the noble example of the
Upper Canadian Parliament in abolishing slavery. This was, however, efiected
by a decision of Chief Justice Osgoode that slavery in any part of Canada
was contrary to law. As Niagara was too near the frontier to be secure.
Governor Simcoe projected a town of London on a river which he called
the Thames. But Lord Dorchester preferred the central position of Kingston,
commanding the outlet of the lakes, and from its situation easily defended.
At Icn^rth it was decided to fix the seat of Government at York, a few milea
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 37
east of old Fort Toronto. This ivas in 1796. A group of wooden houses rose
near the banks of a muddy and tortuous stream called the Don, sufficient for
the residence of twelve families. The first Upper Canadian newspaper, the
Niagara Gaaette, appeared at Newark at this period. As an Act of Parliament
was passed offering a reward for killing off wolves and bears, it is evident
that the number of these wild beasts was then great Old people still live in
our most settled districts, even in towns like Picton, who tell how the
wolves used to howl round the farmer s hut at night ; how the bears might be
knocked on the head when they got stuck foot-fast in the ice ; how lynx, and
wildcat and wolverine, warred against the good wife's poultry.
In 1796 Grovernor Simcoe was recalled, Peter Russell acting as Governor ad
interinL There is no greater proof of the prosperity of a colony than the statis-
tics of its trade. It is worthy of note that one-eighth of the revenues of the
ports of Montreal and Quebec, which had been assigned to Upper Canada, as it
was thought to equal her share of export trade, which in 1796 amounted to
j£o,000, in thirteen years* time increased to £28,000, and Upper Canada's share
of the export trade was raised to one-fifth. Besides the trade with Lower
Canada, a new and rapidly extending commerce had grown up between Upper
Canada and New York. It was, therefore, advisable to open ports of entry
from Cornwall on the St. Lawrence, along the shore of Ontario to Sandwich,
opposite Detroit. The Upper Canada Gazette was published at York in 1800.
Meanwhile the work of settlement went on. The troublous times of 1798
sent many, both Protestant and Catholic, from unhappy Ireland, and no
citizens are more law-abiding than the industrious Celtic colonist, if only he
will let the rancorous traditions of race and creed animosities die out in a
land where there is neither landlordism nor established Church. In 1803 a
benevolent but eccentric cadet of the noble Irish house of Talbot founded the
Talbot Settlement on the shores of Lake Erie. He was granted 5,000 acres on
condition of planting a settler on each two hundred acres. In those days large
grants of land were often given to persons who had interest with the Govern-
ment, without any stipulation being piade as to the duties of colonization.
Thus Mr. Ingersol had a grant of the whole township of Oxford, and a person
named Daton, of the township of Burford. But Colonel Talbot carefully ful-
filled his agreement. He was a very rigid Tory, and those who desired political
refonn met with scant favour at his hands ; but he was kind-hearted, except
to itinerant Methodist ministers, newspaper editors, and other impugners of
the powers that be. In the early days of the Talbot Settlement, this, as well
as other parts of Upper Canada, was largely peopled by Highland Scotchmen,
inured to hardship in their own country, who, as well as the Lowland Scotch,
formed a most valuable class of colonists. Indeed, the Scotch as well as the
Irish accent may be heard in every part of our country, although it invariably
disappears in the third generation, to make room for the pure £nglish accent
that belongs to educated Americans on both sides of the frontier. Colonel
Talbot diecf at an honoured old age in 1853.
In 1793 an English Church Bishop, Dr. Mountain, came to Quebec. He was
appointed by letters patent €rom the Crown, and therefore had a claim to the
title " My Lord," to which the present bishops, who are elected by the
Canadian clergy, have no title. A cathedral was built for him at Quebec on
38 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
the site of the old Church of the Recollets. Dr. Mountain deserves credit for
endeavouring to direct attention to the need of education in Lower Canada, and
Parliament gave directions that free schools should be established and main-
tained from the funds forfeited by the Jesuits. To this the Roman Catholic
clergy offered such opposition that the only grammar-schools opened were in
Montreal and Quebec. In 1806 a paper called Le Canadien appeared, in
opposition to the Government and the English-speaking race. This paper
embittered those antipathies which had been acrimonious enough before. In
Upper Canada, always ;the first to take the forward step of progress. Parliament
made a grant of £800 to establish a grammar-school in every district of the
Province.
The social condition of the French Canadian seems to have degenerated since
the days of Montcalm. We read of official frauds that recaU the regime of
Bigot, of Judges drunk on the bench, and openly avowing their maladministration
of justice. Society in Montreal saw everything belonging to the conquering
race with jaundiced eyes ; their political history at that time is a series of
disreputable brawls with the successive governments, from which neither party
came out with any credit. But the material condition of the Lower Canadian
improved every year. New Branches of industry werS opened, the trade returns
were much increased, shipping thronged the noble harbours of Montreal. In
November, 1809, the first steamer plied between Montreal and Quebec ; she was
called the Accommodation.and was built by thefounder of the wellknown Montreal
firm of Molson.
The troubles between the Legislative Assembly and Governor Craig came to a
head in 1810. A majority of the Assembly had resolved that' Judges should
not be eligible to hold seats in the House, as being liable to be influenced by
the Executive Council; and being thwarted by the conjoint action of the
Governor and the Council, expelled Judge De Bonne from his place in the
Assembly. In retaliation the Governor took high-handed measures : he abruptly
dissolved the Assembly and forcibly suppressed the Canadien^ a proceeding so
arbitrary that the period in which it occurred was known as the " Reign of
Terror." It is pleasant to turn from these scenes of mutual outrage to the
very different picture presented by Upper Canada.
The War of 1812.
As war was now imminent between England and the United States,
governors were chosen with a view to the military requirements of the crisis.
Sir George Prevost, a veteran Swiss officer, who had been Governor of Nova
Scotia, was appointed to govern Lower Canada, where he wun golden opinions
from the oppressed people, and reversed the arbitrary policy of his contentious
predecessor. The good effect of this was seen in the action of the Lower Cana-
dian legislature, which passed a bill to raise 2,000 militia; it voted £12,000 to
defray the expenses of these troops, £20,000 to provide for the security of the
Province, and £30,000 more to meet emergencies. It also passed a. motion for
inquiry into the cause of the late troubles, the motion being seconded by a
youthful member already known for his eloqiienc^, named Louis J. Papineau.
In Upper Canada General Sir Isaac Brock succeeded lieutenant-Govemor
Gore. Here, too, a Militia Bill was introduced and passed on a liberal scale.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 39
With the cause of the War of 181 2 Canadian history has no concern ; our inter-
ests were directly in favour of peace, and we were as guiltless of the demand
of the British for the right to search American vessels, as of the embargo
by which a virtual war was waged against American commerce. But, as
usual, our country was made the battle-field for the contending powers, and
the war was maimy carried on by Canadian blood and treasure. Tet in the
end the benefits derived from the war were great ; it drew the two races of
Canadian settlers more closely together, and made each conscious of the good
qualities of the other ; it brought a good deal of money into our country, and
was the direct cause of the prosperity of much of Upper Canada, besides
giving us some valuable acquisitious of military settlers when the war was
over. This war led to the construction of that expensive but useless public
work, the Rideau Canal, and hence to the foundation of Ottawa.
General Hull, with 2.500 Americans, invaded Canada from Detroit, taking
possession of Sandwich. He issued a proclamation which displayed some
ability ; General Brock marched in pursuit with a somewhat inferior
force, half of them Indians from the wilds of Ohio. Hull retired to Detroit.
The Indians were led by a remarkable warrior, who, with Thayendanegea and
Fontiac, are the great historic figures of Indian warfare. Tecumseh had some
talent for military engineering ; before the troops left the Canadian shore,^he
had traced, with sufiicient accuracy, on a piece of birch bark, a plan of the
fortifications of Detroit. After a brief resistance that town surrendered to
Brock, and Hull and his entire force were sent captives to Montreal. Mean-
while Captain Roberts, operating in the west, had taken possession of Fort
Mackinaw, or Michilimakinac.
The Americans resolved to strike a heavier blow on the Niagara frontier.
On October 13th, Colonel Van Rensselaer commanded 6,000 men on the
Niagara River. Of these he sent over a detachment of 1,000, who attacked
the British position on Queenston heights and succeeded in forcing their way
to the heights despite a heavy fire from the English cannon. Brock hastened to
the scene of action, and rallying his soldiers, led them to charge the Ameri-
cans, and the success of his attack was assured had he not been shot down
in the moment of victory. Dispirited at his loss the troops received a check,
but a force of 800 re^lar troops, militia, and Indians came up under General
Sheaffe. In the battle that ensued the Americans were defeated with a loss
of 400 men ; the rest surrendered. The British loss was 70.
Near Black Rock, General Smythe, with 4,500 Americans, crossed the river,
but was repulsed and withdrew from the enterprise.
In Lower Canada a force of 1,400 Americans, who had invaded the frontier,
were defeated with much promptitude by Major De Salaberry. Disconcerted
at this, Dearborn, the American Commandant, withdrew his troops from the
Canadian frontier.
As Britain was now engaged in the heat of her gigantic duel with Napo-
leon, it was impossible for her to send an adequate number of troops till just
before the conclusion of this war, when the overthrow of the French
despot set her armies at liberty.. But her part was well sustained by the
colonists, French as well as Upper Canadians, and the glory gained by such
officers as De Salaberry did much to bring about a better state of feeling
40 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
between the people of the two Provinces. The Indian braves too were faithful
to Britain, although it was a sinister alliance, the chivalrous soldier's sword
with the savage scalping-knife.
One Captain Macdowell having crossed the frozen St. Lawrence, made a raid
on Ogdensburg, whence he carried to the Canadian side some artillery and
supplies. The Americans had more success in naval warfare, but the p^aut
exploits achieved by their ships against those of the first naval power in the
world do not come within the scope of our history.
In 1813 Colonel Proctor, destined to meet such a disastrous defeat at
Thamesville, defeated the American General, Wilkinson, near Detroit. The
American plans were now limited to the conquest of Upper Canada, for which
purpose they built a naval armament at Sackett's Harbour, in order to com-
mence the labour. General Dearborn had also a considerable land force,
which in April embarked in Commodore Chauncey s fleet, and sailing to
York, easily took a place that had no defences. The garrison of 600 men
retreated, an act for which General Sheaffe was superseded. Some 200 militia
surrendered, the cannon and stores were carried off, and most of the town was
burned down. The American force next attacked Fort George at Niagara,
which they captured after a gallant defence, continued till the defences were
destroyed, when the British General, Vincent, fell back upon the works at
Queenston. Vincent then destroyed the defences of Chippewa and Fort Erie,
and withdrew to Burlington Heights. Thus the Americans were now masters
of the whole Niagara frontier.
General Prevost, attended by Admiral Sir James Yeo, with a naval force
and ofi&cers, planned an attack on Sackett's Harbour, while the main force of the
American troops were away at Niagara. But the result was, from some bungle
of the attacking party, a disgrac^ul failure.
At Detroit General Proctor attacked the American General, Harrison, who,
however, was able to intrench his troops, and Proctor could not dislodge him.
But a force of 1,200 men, advancing under General Clay, was attacked by Proctor,
who took some 500 prisoners.
Generals Chandler and Winder were sent by Dearborn to dislodge the British
from their position on Burlington Heights. But a nicrht attack by Colonel
Harvey at Stony Creek caused a speedy retreat of this force, with the capture
of both Generals and 116 men ; and 500 men, with Colonel Boerstler, at Beaver
Dams surrendered to Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, to whom a lady of the well known
Niagara family of Secord, by a great effort, gave warning of the approach of
the Americans. Yet it was impossible to deny that the American army had
in some degree gained the advantage, since they had effected a lodgment on
our soil, and had still possession of Fort George.
On Lake Champlain a slight success was gained by the British, who took
two armed vessels, but a heavy defeat was sustained by the fleet commanded
by Captain Barclay, on Lake Erie, every ship of which was captured by Com-
modore Perry.
Meantime Harrison moved on Detroit in such force that Proctor recrossed
the river and retreated along the valley of the Thames. The pursuing army of
Harrison greatly outnumbered Proctor's force. They were overtaken near a
village of Moravian Indians on the banks of the Thames, between Thamesville
/^yj:^/^K^
TWE NEV VMHK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 43
and the village of Both well. Here Tecumsehs Indians refused to follow the
army any further from their village. A confused fight tookplace all along the
valley ; as Tecumseh was about to attack an American officer with scalping
knife and tomahawk, the officer drew a pistol and shot the redoubtable savage.
The rout was soon complete, and Proctor made the best haste he could to Bur-
lington Heights. After this success, the Americans resolved to make a
movement on a large scale upon Montreal. But their General, Hampton,
with 6,000 men, was defeated at Chateauguay by Colonel De Salaberry's skil-
ful handling of his small force of 400 ; a feat worthy of the compatriots of
Frontenac and Montcalm. This gallant action saved Montreal. A drawn
battle took place at Chrysler's Farm, in which the Americans lost 200, includ-
ing their General, Boyd, and were obliged to abandon their position.
The year 1813 closed with other successes for the British army. Niagara was
once more retaken by Colonel Murray, and an English force under Biall gave
to the flames Lewiston, Manchester, Black Rock and Buffalo, in retaliation for
the burning of Niagara by the Americans. The burning down of farm houses,
villages and towns, of which both sides in this most unhappy war were guilty,
caused the most bitter feelings, and gave the contest a sinister aspect of brig-
andage.
In 1814, the war operations consisted of an unsuccessful attack by General
Wilkinson, with 5,000 men, against 500 British at LacoUe Mill ; a second attack
by the British fleet on Oswego, which was once more plundered of its stores,
and the fiercest combat of the war, when 5,000 Americans under General
Brown, while operating in the Niagara region, were defeated with great
loss by the British under Drummond, with 3,000 men, at Lundy's Luie. In
this battle the British loss was 900, that of the Americans, 1,200. In conse-
Juence of this defeat the latter withdrew across the river, having blown up
ort Erie.
England was now able to send large reinforcements to Canada. Sir George
Prevost, with 11,000 men, marched to attack Flattsburg. But, as the English
flotilla had been destroyed, he thought it best to withdraw from his design.
For this he was severely censured in England. Prevost was inferior as a
general, but as a governor had attained great popularity in Lower Canada.
In Upper Canada the Americian General, Brown, had once more occupied
Fort Erie, and for some time held General Drummond's force in check at Bur-
lington Heights. But Drummond receiving reinforcements of the newly
arrived troops, had compelled Brown to retire across the Niagara River. The
sack of Washington, and the subsequent defeat of the British at New Orleans,
are of course events outside the scope of Canadian history. Peace came at
last by the Treaty of Ghent, 1814.
So ends the weary record of this unhappy war, a war distinguished by no
great military operations on either side. The native Canadian troops fought
bravely in both the Provinces. But the operations consisted of a number of
marches and countermarches, mostly to gain petty forts and posts of no per-
marent importance. It may, we think, justly be said that equal courage, and
on the whole equal success, may be assigned to Americans and Canadians ; and
to those who look to this great and self-sufficing continent becoming more and
more removed from European politics and quarrels, it is a comfort to know
44 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
that never more will hostile sword cross the line between the Canadian nation
and the great Eepublic.
The Family Compact.
The original settlers of 1783, forming a separate body, with distinct alliances
and traditions of their o,wn, kept aloof from the lat^r immigrants from
various parts of Great Britain. Such as the rudimentary governmental
system was in Upper Canada, it naturally came to pass that the representa-
tives of some of the more distinguished and successful of the U.-E. Loyalist
families held public offices in their hands ; they formed a sort of aristocracy
in the Province. And the Constitution of 1791 directed that the Governor
should be advised by an Executive Council, whose members were chosen from
those of the Legislative Council, members of a clique which, being non-elective,
looked to the Government rather than to the people. Such men were the
salaried officials ; the sinecurists — of whom there were not a few in either
Province-Judges, and the mUitary officers whom the war had left in Canada,
8md other waiters upon the providence which distributes the Government
loaves and fishes. These men were neither responsible to the Assembly — the
only elective body of the Legislature — nor to the people ; they ruled in both
Provinces, forming an oligarchy known as the Family Compact. By their
social position, and by the natural tendency of absolute rulers to favour those
who support absolutism, they got control of governor after governor, till a
tyranny as odious as that of Charles the First and James the Second drove
our countrymen also to rebellion.
At the beginning of the War of 1812, Sir George Prevost was directed to
use conciliatory measures. He assured the French Canadians of being secured
in their religious and political rights, which the so-called British party — that
of a small but influential minority in Lower Canada — incessantly endeavoured
to trench on and destroy. But when peace was restored, are action took place,
and through the oligarchic Executive and Legislative Councils a steady
encroachment on French Canadian rights was pursued. Again and again the
Assembly, led by the eloquent and popular Papineau, pleaded for popular rights.
A determined stand was made on the question of the right of voting supplies
after — by Lord Bathurst's acceptance, in 1818, of Lower Canada's offer to defray
the whole expenses of Government — the control of the grant of the supplies
fell into the hands of the House of Assembly. This gave the popular party the
power of the purse, and a means of checking, by their yearly vote, the uncon-
stitutional acts of an Executive. And this the oligarchy of the Council opposed
as revolutionary ; a dead lock ensued in the legislative machinery, and public
feeling became every year more bitter.
There were other grievances of an odiously oppressive nature. The Judges
were dependent on the Executive, to which many of them were notoriously
subservient. No public official was held accountable to the popular Assembly;
in 1823 one Caldwell was found to have embezzled £96,000 of the public
money, and escaped unpunished. It was demanded that the Jesuits' estates
should be applied to purposes of public education. In 1814 a formal impeach-
ment was brought in the Lower Canada Assembly against Chief Justice Sewell,
of Quebec, for having given unconstitutional advice to Governor Craig to
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 45
dissolve the Assembly. Another charge was complicity in the disgraceful
secret mission of the spy, John Henry, to excite treason against the Union
in certain northern States previous to the war, of which Henry's mission
was a leading cause. Similar charges were brought against Chief Justice
Monk, another member of the oligarchy. Both these officials escaped justice;
the Tory aristocratic party were in possession of all power in England, and
Sewell got highly recommended to Lord Bathurst. and to Sir J. C. Sherbrooke,
who was made Governor in 1816.
Meanwhile in Upper Canada discontent was already active against the
tyrannic role of the Family Compact. Sobert Gourlay, a Scotchman of some
literary power, was bold in calling attention to abuses, to which the Executive
afterwaids replied by imprisoning him in Niagara jail, where he was treated
with extreme harshness. Gourlay was supported by Peter Perry, member for
Lennox and Addington, who had risen to considerable wealth by industry and
shrewdness, and who is remembered in the Province as the founder of Oshawa
and Port Perry. These men drew public attention to the injustice of the
Clergy Beserves, one-seventh of the whole Province being set apart for the
ministers of one Church exclusively. And these Clergy Eeserves did not lie
in one tract ; they were dispersed amon^ the lots occupied by actual settlers ;
and being left unreclaimed, full of wild beasts and untaxed, lowered the value
of adjacent land. It was felt intolerable that the selfish claims of one Church
should thus exclude from one-seventh of our country the farmer's plough and
the axe of the settler. The remonstrances of those early pioneers of reform
made no impression on the despotic Executive ; but with the Legislative
Assembly it was otherwise ; and in 1817, when the Upper Canada Assembly
resolved to take into their consideration the internal state of the country,
Maior-General Bobertson, a staunch Family Compact partisan, imitated tne
evil precedent of Craig and other Lower Canada Governors by proroguing the
Assembly. Thus began a contest between the Assembly and the Family^
Compact, which did not slacken till the overthrow of the latter, and the
establishment of responsible government.
Meantime the material progress of Upper Canada steadily advanced. The
'* Army bills,*' a paper money issue during the War of 1812, were scrupulously
repaid. In 1815 a grant of £25,000 was made to construct the Lachine Canal,
thus furthering the advance of Canada's commerce by rendering the St.
Lawrence navigable for other craft than the clumsy batteavx of former times.
Liberal measures were passed by the Upper Canada Parliament for relief of
farmers who had suffered in the war or from failure of the wheat crop. But
the Province quickly recovered these temporary checks. In Lower Canada
the first banks were opened, those of Montreal and Quebec, in 1817.
The lumber trade now began to be a source of national wealth. In the
year 1818 the first ship laden with Canadian lumber sailed for an English port.
The rapid extension ot this industry peopled the depths of our winter forests
with the peaceful camps of the lumbermen, thus affording healthy and most
remunerative eniployment for all men in our country who were willing to
work. There was another important consequence, the stimulus the lumber
trade gave to civilization. The settler's farm followed the lumber shanty in
order to sell produce to the shantymen. The saw-mill sent up its steam beside
46 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the nearest river. Ottawa, which was selected by the late Duke of Wellington
as a sufficiently out-of-the-way place where the seat of government could be
safe from invasion, owes more of its growth to the mills that make its lumber
than to the Parliament that makes Taws. The lumber trade moved up the
Ottawa, founding towns and villages at each ten miles. Thus the settlement
of the Upper Ottawa valley began about 1821.
In 1818 Sherbrooke's ill health caused his recall. He was succeeded by the
Duke of Richmond, an impoverished participator of the profligacies of George,
Prince Regent, who was glad to recruit his fortunes by coming to Cana^
as Governor. He treated the just grievances of the Lower Canada Assembly
with aristocratic disdain, and his rule might have strengthened the Family Com-
pact in our own Province ; but in 1819, having been bitten by a tame fox, he
was affected with hydrophobia, and breaking loose from his escort, ran violently
-along the river which flows by the village called after him, Richmond, near
Ottawa. He died at the village, and was succeeded by Sir Peregrine Mait-
land.
In 1820 the Bank of Upper Canada commenced operations, and in 1824 the
Welland Cana], between Lakes Erie and Ontario, was begun, a work due to
Wm. H. Merritt, who designed it in 1818.
The trade in ship-building was greatly fostered by the growth of the lumber
trade ; at Kingston, on the Bay of Quinte, and at Montreal and Quebec, it was
carried on with vigour. In 1825 the rank of a University was given to Queen's
College, KiugstoD. In Upper Canada, as far back as 1816, an Act of our Parlia-
ment was passed to establish common schools, a grant of £6,000 being made for
the purpose. Every effort was made to encourage immigration, grants of land
and Government assistance being given to settlers. A large number of Irish
came out at this time, sent by a Government only too glad to sweep its surplus
pauperism into the hold of an emigrant ship. In spite of our Government's
efforts to enforce quarantine, these unhappy people wandered everywhere,
carrying with them fever, and leaving the care of their diseased and dying
relatives to our farmers. It is true they were helped according to our people's
ability, and many of them survived to be useful labourers and farmera
In 1821, five new members of Council were added, among them tlj^e Rev.
John Strachan, who afterwards became Bishop of the English Church in Tor-
onto. He was our Canadian Laud, the only mitred statesman we have had or
are likely to have. Of a somewhat arbitrary temper, he had also much shrewd-
ness and^a kindly nature. He was a leader of the Family Compact obstruc-
tives, and for some time was the chief power in Upper Canada. At this time
the population of Upper Canada had risen to 120,000, and the number of mem-
bers ot the Assembly being for that reason doubled, its popular character and
influence increased.
Attempts were at this time made by the Church of Scotland to secure a
share of the Clergy Reserves, in which, after strong opposition from Dr.
Strachan, they were at length successful in 1832.
In 1823, the Canada Trade Act of the Imperial Parliament became law.
By it was established the claim of Upper Canada to £30,000, arrears of her
share of the importation dues ; for the original share of one-eighth of the
<luties had, by the growth of Upper Canadian commerce, risen to one-fifth.
THE DOMINION OF CANiUJA. 47
The two Provinces were also advised to unite, but to this the Lower Canadians
were vehemently opposed, as they dreaded that their race and customs might
be superseded by the superior energy of English-speaking Canada. In
1827, King's College, York, now our Provincial University, was founded. It
was then an Elnglish Church seminary on the Oxford lines, and was promoted
mainly by Dr. Strachan. In the same year, Sir John Colbome came as Gov-
ernor of tipper Canada. He was a stem absolutist, of few words and haughty
demeanour.
All this time the disputes between the Executive and the Assembly became
more and more embittered. In 1823, a new official Oazette was established
under the direct patronage of the Governor, Lord Dalhousie, as a slight to the
old Quebec Gazette, now edited by Mr. Neilson, an eloquent leader of the
popular party. This unconstitutional use of public money gave just offence
Next session the Assembly reduced the money granted for the Civil list one-
fourth. An eloquent denouncer of these and other abuses was M. Papineau.
The Governor tried to gain over this patriot by appointing him a member of
the Council, but Papineau, knowing well that his influence would be powerless
in that clique, never took his seat.
Sir John Colbome treated the Upper Canada Assembly with equal disdain.
He would reply to their addresses in a few curt contemptuous words, and turn
away to the more obsequious members. Hitherto the solitary advocates of
popular rights had been crushed as Thorpe, Gourlay and S. Bid well had been
by the power of the Executive. But now the caustic eloquence of a new leader
swayed the Assembly more than ever to resistance. William Lyon Mackenzie
was one who, whatever his faults, knew no fear of wrong-doers in power. In.
the columns of his paper, the ablest that had yet appeared in Canada, he handled
the vices of the Family Compact without gloves. So keenly did the oligarchy
feel his caustic criticisms, that a mob of their adherents attacked and
wrecked the office of the Colonial Advocaie, and threw the printing materials-
into the lake. But this outrage only increased Mackenzie's influence with the
Assembly, and above all with these earnest-minded haters of the prevailing
tyianny who began to abound in all parts of the country.
Meanwhile in Lower Canada, in 1827, M. Papineau had been elected Speaker
of the Assembly. Lord Dalhousie refused to sanction the appointment, and
the Assembly to elect any other Speaker ; the Governor at once prorogued the
Assembly. The trouble went on to such a degree that in 1828, 87,000 of the
people petitioned the Crown, urging their grievances, and citing the tyrannical
conduct of Lord Dalhousie and his predecessors. A committee of the English
House of Commons emphatically asserted the constitutional right of the
Assembly to control the public revenue of the Province, but decided that, to-
avoid collision with the Executive, the salaries of the Governor, Judges and
Council should be secured to these officials. They also recommended that the •
Legislative and Executive Councils should be made elective. This was in
1828.
Lord Dalhousie being recalled. Sir James Kempt was sent to arrange the
Lower Provinces in accordance with the recommendation of the committee.
He accepted Papineau as Speaker, and assented to a provisional Supply Bill.
Meanwhile Lord Goderich, the English Colonial Secretary, sent a statement as.
48 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
to his proposed bill. It seemed that in place of the Assembly getting the
right to control the entire revenue, certain sources of income were excepted.
T^en this was laid before the Assembly, the old discontents revived in full
force, and they resolved never to accept less than the control of the entire
revenue. For the next five years there were endless disputes as to details of the
revenue, now of no interest, all grievance^ having b^n long ago redressed.
But they aggravated the distrust of the British Government, and fanned the
fire of Papineau's eloquence. At last an Act, seconded by Papineau and
opposed by the more moderate Constitutionalists, was passed by the Assembly,
Imown as the 92 Resolutions. It embodied, in somewhat inflammatory lan-
guage, the popular grievances, and was widely circulated as the basis of an
agitetion whidi it was now fully contemplated might become an armed revolt.
It is but just to Papineau and nis colleagues to say, that they did not resort
to extreme measures till, after the forbearance of years, it seemed plain that
there was no hope of redresa
In Upper Canada, the town hitherto known as York, more familiarly as
*' Muddy Little York," became a city, of which William Lyon Mackenzie was
elected the first Mayor. His popularity was increasing, especially throughout
that part of the country north of Toronto. Instigated by Dr. Strachan, the
Council resolved to secure a large proportion of the Clergy Reserves by creat-
ing fifty-seven rectories of the Church of England, to be supported by the
lands of the Reserves. This act, stealing a march beforehand on what the
popular party hoped to effect, excited the greatest indignation. Sir John
Colbome being recalled. Sir Francis Bond Head took his place. There was
at this time a commercial crisis which, however, the Upper Canada banks got
over without any stoppage of payment. The population of Upper Canada
then numbered 390,000.
About 1835, finding it vain to hope for justice by constitutional means, as
far as the Upper Canada Grovemment was concerned, and lacking patience to
wait the action of Canada's truest friends in the English ministry, Mackenzie
resolved on armed insurrection. For this purpose he communicated with
Papineau and the Lower Canadians, who promised co-operation.
•
Mackenzie's Revolt.
Meanwhile Sir Francis Head, who had been sent from England to conciliate,
rather exasperated the popular party than otherwise. He appointed members
of the Family Compact to high salaried positions of trust. He sought to gain
popularity at the time by appointing three members of the popular ranks in the
Assembly, Dr. Rolph, and Messrs. Baldwin and Dunn, to seats in the Council ;
but as he never consulted them, they resigned. He was an impulsive man, but
a fairly smart writer of magazine articles. At last, what had never occurred
before in Upper Canada, the Assembly stopped the supplies ; this was in 1836.
On this Head obtained a majority of Tories in the Assembly.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie was holding meetings throughout those parts of Upper
Canada where his following was strongest He had many sympathisers amoi^
the more educated class in the towns, but his chief adherents were the sturdy
Scotch and Dutch farmers in the " back townships." Old flint-lock muskets and
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 49
rifles were got ready, pike-heads were forged and mounted on stout ash poles'
and it was resolved to march on Toronto and proclaim Canadian independence.
Meantime, Sir F. Head had sent all the regular troops to Lower Canada, an out-
break having occurred on November 6, 1837. A rising took place under Dr.
Nelson at St. Denis, in Lower Canada. A proclamation had been issued declaring
PapineaUy Nelson and others, guilty of high treason. Papineau, however, was
persuaded to escape to the States. Nelson was personally popular, and when
the alarm-bell sounded 800 men answered it, only 120 armed with muskets, the
rest with pikes and pitchforks. They were attacked by five companies of
regulars under Colonel Gore, a Waterloo veteran. But Nelson being soon
afterwards reinforced with some better armed insurgents, and posted in a
strong position, after a fight of two hours the British retired. But the
insurgents were afterwards routed with great loss by Colonel Weatherall, near
St Charles. The last stand of the Lower Canadian insurrection was at St.
Eustache, when the Canadian fire was sustained with spirit while they had any
ammanition,but the houses where they had been posted were set on fire, and the
parish church, into which they were driven for refuge, caught the flames. Not
one of Chenier's men escaped the slaughter that followed. The village was
burned, as was that of Si Eustache and of Benoit, where no resistance was
ofiered. (Gameau, VoL IL)
The Lower Canadian insurrection, although suppressed, was a more serious
matter than that which took place in the Upper Province. It opened the eyes
of the Liberal Government in England to the fact that the people of Canada
had grievances which they were willing to risk their lives to get rid of. If
prompt and full redress has been the result, some gratitude is due to men like
Mackenzie and Nelson, who, to gain no personal object, took their lives in their
hands to obtain the privileges we enjoy to-day.
Toronto being thus left without troops, it seemed quite feasible that Mac-
kenzie's force might surprise the Capital. In the first week of December, 1837,
his adherents mustered on what is now Yonge Street, but which was then a
road through the woods. There were some eight hundred of them, armed with
muskets and pikes ; but Dr. Rolph had sent contradictory orders to three of the
other leaders about the day of outbreak, and the enterprise was thus checked
at the outset. Their outpost on Yonge Street arrested Colonel Moodie, who
was riding tu give information of their advance, and he, attempting to escape,
was most unhappily shot.
An advance was made on their position, whose central point was in a house
on Yonge Street, called Montgomery's Farm, where a fight, or rather a skirmish,
consisting merely of an exchange of a few musket shots, took place. Although
so-called histories of Canada state that thirty of Mackenzie's men were killed,
careful inquiry among old men who were present convinces us that at most one
man, a Dutch farmer, was seen to drop as he siood firing on the Royalists. The
latter were volunteers, not in uniform, armed with flint-lock muskets, like their
opponents.
Mackenzie and his colleagues fled, a price being set on their heads, to the
United States, whence they returned in after years, after receiving free pardon.
Mackenzie resided in Toronto, and lived to see most of the reforms for which
he fought freely conceded.
50 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
In the counties of Middlesex, Oxford and Brant there had been a section of
the people prepared for revolt; but Colonel MacNab fortunately prevented
this, and exercised great clemency towards those implicated. Their leader, Dr.
Buncombe, escaped to the States. A second attempt was made by Mackenzie,
in conjunction with the American, Van Rensselaer, who occupied Navy Island,
above Niagara Falls, and fortified it with about 1,000 men from Canada and
the States. But Colonel MacNab, with a force of more than double the num-
ber, prevented their landing, and a small steamei^ the Caroline, employed in
carrying supplies to the island, was captured by MacNab, and being set on fire,
was sent down the Falls. There were other bands of insurgents gathered at
Detroit, Sandusky, and Watertown. These were not the movements of Canadian
insurgents, but of some restless spirits on the United States frontier.
In a raid made on Windsor from the American shore opposite. Colonel John
Prince captured four of the raiders, and, constituting himself "judge, jury, and
executioner," ordered them to be shot in cold blood, without even the form of a
court-martial. To use his own characteristic words, " they were shot accord-
ingly." For the leaders of the Family Compact in too few instances showed
the merciful and conciliatory spirit which enabled Colonel MacNab to prevent
rather than suppress a revolt the rendezvous of which was to have been at
" Scotland," in the county of Brant. Even then numerous arrests were made,
but the sons of these " suspects" bear witness at the present day to the kind-
ness with which MacNab (Usmissed them on their own undertaking to keep
quiet
A final attempt was also made about the same time to invade Upper Canada
at Prescott ; the raiders seized a stono mill, such as in the old Indian wars were
often used as fortresses. Here they were assailed by a force of militia far out-
numbering their own and better armed, and, though they defended themselves
while resistance was possible, they were overpowered, and at last surrendered.
A reign of terror prevailed in Toronto ; five hundred insurgents were crowd-
ing the prisona Two leaders, Lount and Mathews, died on the scaflTold at Tor-
onto, meeting their fate calmly.
Meantime Lord Durham was sent to Canada, to make a searching inquiry
into the causes of discontent For in England the Tory power, which had
been unquestioned since Waterloo, was virtually overthrown by the passage of
the Reform Bill of 1834. The Liberal Government of Lords Grey and Mel-
bourne was destined to accomplish many reforms ; amongst others the first
gre^t steps to popular Government in Canada. The Imperial Government for
a time suspended the Canadian Constitution in order that Lord Durham, aided
by a special council of his own appointment, might be empowered to adjust
difiSculties. The new Governor acted in the wisest and most conciliatory
spirit He composed a report which ranks as a classic in Canadian political
literature. It is mainly owing to this report, and to his impartial and lumin-
ous statement of the circumstances of the case, that the union of the two Pro-
vinces is owing, and above all, that the Legislature in every branch should
be so constituted that a really responsible (Government should result Lord
Durham pardoned the greater part of the insurgents ; their leaders, now in
prison, he induced to put themselves unreservedly in his hands, so as to avoid
the popular excitement attendant on a State trial, and exiled them to Bermuda.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 51
The English Government, and the Parliament especially, urged on by Lord
Durham's bitter personal enemy, Brougham, considered this action unconsti-
tutional, and set aside the sentence of banishment, thus giving the prisoners
their liberty. On learning this Lord Durham resigned, and left for England
in November, 1838.
A second insurrection now took place in Lower Canada, led by Dr. Nelson's
brother. It was, however, suppressed, Sir John Colbome routing Nelson's force
with great loss at Napierville. The insurgents were again defeated at Beau-
hamois by the Glengarry Militia. Colbome made an unsparing use of his
success over men in every respect at a disadvantage in numbers, arms and
discipline. Twelve executions took place, and three Judges, who had the
courage to condemn these butcheries as unconstitutional, were suspended from
office. It is consolatory to know that ten years afterwards they were rein-
stated in their offices by Lord Sydenham.
It being now the wish of Lord Melbourne's Ministry to bring about the
amalgamation of the two races in Canada by the union of the two Provinces,
it was thought necessary to obtain the full concurrence of each Province through
its Legislature. For the task of arranging this the ministry chose as Gover-
nor-General Mr. Charles Paulet Thomson, an English merchant trained in
the strictest Toryism, yet one who had inclined in the Liberal direction, and
was the friend and associate of Bentham and Mill. A Radical as Radicals
were at that time, he was yet regarded as an eminently mfc man, an adroit
politician, and one eminently fitted to carry out the scheme outlined by Lord
Durham. The Lower Canadian Special Council had been appointed by Sir
John Colborne, and did not in any way represent the French Canadians. It
therefore at once consented to a union of the Provinces, and to rendering the
members of the Executive for the future dependent for their tenure of office
on the support their policy might obtain in the Assembly. The French Can-
adians regarded the union as a measure intended to efface their nationality, but
they had no legislative voice to express their sense of wrong.
in Upper Canada no trouble was likely to come from the Assembly, as it
had already consented to a union of the Provinces, and had been for years
endeavouring to win responsible government. But the Council, the last strong-
hold of the Family Compact, was also a part of the Constitution. How could
they be asked to efface themselves ? Mr. Thomson, however, managed this
with great address, publishing in the Upper Canada Gazette a despatch from
the English minister, in which the determination of the English Government
that the Canadian Executive should be responsible to the people was in unmis-
takable terms declared to be final. The Family Compact bowed to their fate,
but they had not yet said the last word when the Union Act passed in 1840.
The next elections were the first battle-ground ; at least ten members were
returned by illegal means, yet the new Governor found that a majority of the
new members were pledged to support the changes he was sent from England
to carry out. " Only seven members of the Compact had seats." (Dent.) The
Assembly was to meet in Kingston in June.
At the time of the Union in 1846, the entire population of Canada was
reckoned at 1,600,000, of which 470,000 belonged to Upper Canada. Although
the people 'of Lower Canada had advanced in many respects, although in
4
52 HISTORY OF BBAKT COUSTY.
Montre&l and Quebec new industries such as shipbuilding had arisen, still the
Lower Canadian people, as compared with those of the Upper Province, were in
a state of retrogression. Their agriculture was carried on with implements
that belonged to the France of the 17th century. The habitants had scarcely
advanced beyond the modes of thought of the Middle Ages. They were, as
they are still, the devoted subjects of a mediaeval Church. Of the 87,000
signers of the petition sent to England from the Lower Canadians in 1828,
Mr. Dent finds that 78,000 were unable to write. ("Last Forty Years," Vol. L,
p. 54). The financial condition of the Lower Province as regards revenue was.
however, better than that of the Upper. There was little public debt, and in
1840 a surplus of revenue over expenditure.
But in tipper Canada the energies of its active and ambitious population
were not confined to farming. Statistics show that while in a period of
twenty years Lower Canada increased her amount of acres under cultivation
by 1*9, the increase of those of Upper Canada was 4'5. The Upper Canadian
agriculture was progressive, energetic, never satisfied with old, worn-out
methods, ever eager to have in use the last improved appliances of England
or the States. Wheat for numy years was the main crop, for the reason that
it was the readiest sold. The entire wheat crop of the Upper Province in
the Union year is estimated at three million bushels.
The towQS of Upper Canada were at that time small, and with scant pre-
tensions to beauty, compared with the two historic cities of the other Pro-
vince. Toronto was the best in 1840. Then, as now, it was the intellectual
centre of Canada. It had a population of 15,000. Kingston and Hamil-
ton came next. London, since its foundation by Governor Simcoe, was the
military station and most progressive town of the west, having eclipsed St
Thomas. Bytown, the nucleus of Ottawa, was a lumber shanty by the Chau-
diere. In 1840, the Victoria College, Coboui^, took rank as a university, and
Queen's College, Kingston, was founded. In care for education, as in all else,
the Upper Province led Canada's advance.
Lord Sydenham's MnfisxRY.
Mr. ITiomson had been raised to the British peerage as Lord Sydenham for
his services in Canada, and summoned the first rarliament since the Union to
meet at Kingston in June, 1841. It was the first Canadian Parliament which
was representative of the people. The ministry included men of opposite
politics, who agreed to act together for a time in order to enable the Governor
to inaugurate Qie new system. Draper as Attomey-Greneral, though a Tory,*
was yet for a time the colleague of the leading constitutional reformer, Robert
Baldwin. But the latter from the first declined to consent to any sort of coalition
with the Conservative members of the ministry, and on Lord Sydenham
* The word " Tory " appears to haTe first occurred in E^Uah history in 1679, during the
•troAgle in Parliament occasioned by the introdaction of the &U. for the Exclusion of the Duke
of York from the Line of Sncoession, and was applied by the adTocates of the bill to its oppo-
nents as a title of obloquy and contempt. Afterwards, the leading principle of the Tories
became the maintenance of things as they are. The Tory Ib now an almost extinct ^eMU, and
mnst not be confounded with the ConseryatiTe of the present day, whose liberality m politics
has met with so much popuhirity under the administration of Sir John Macdonald.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA- 53
dedining to reconstruct it . in accordance with the wishes of the people, he
resigned.
The first important debate drew from the Family Compact Attorney-Gen-
eral, Mr. Draper, the admission that his ministry ought to resign office if want
of confidence in its policy were voted by a majority of the Assembly.
The Parliament met in the large stone building now used as the General
Hospital, directly opposite the University of Queen's College, the Governor-
General residing at the handsome mansion of Alwington, overlooking the
lake shore, and now the home of one well known in Canadian literature, Mr.
Allen, of Kingston.
The debate on constitutional questions was followed by some practical legis-
lation as to public works, municipal corporations, and public education. The
latter subject was introduced by Mr. Day, and provided $200,000 for maintain-
ing primary schools throughout Canada. Although the provisions of this Act
were insufficient, it was a good beginuingof a work destined to be an inestimable
blessing.
A disposition to evade the true spirit of the new Constitution being suspected
on the p£u1; of the Government, this great question was unremittingly pressed
by Mr. Baldwin, a Reform statesman to whose integrity Canada owes much.
He entered on political life in 1829, as member for York, and was son of Dr.
W. Baldwin, a gentleman of liberal and enlightened views. As a Reformer,
Mr. Robert Baldwin's career was marked by high principles, moderation, and
the absence of mere party prejudice. He kept aloof from the Mackenzie revolt,
and, with Mr. Francis Hincks, was among the first to raise the depressed spirit
of the popular party.
On September 4, while Lord Sydenham was riding up the hill leading to
Portsmouth, his horse fell, causing a fracture which brought on lockjaw, from
which he died, much lamented in Canada He was one of the last and best of
oiir personally-goveming Governors, a class of officials soon to become extinct
with the growth of that responsible government which Lord Sydenham, like
Durham, did so much to foster. His grave and monument are in the Church of
St George, Kingston. It was his own wish to rest in Canadian earth.
At the dose of 1840 some trouble had been apprehended from the imprison-
ment of one Alexander MacLeod, a zealous Loyalist, who had fought against
Mackenzie at Montgomery's Farm, and had hastened to join MacNab's force at
Navy Island. In the seizure and destruction of the Caroline^ an act of a some-
what questionable character, there seems evidence that he took no part what-
ever. But in the skirmish that took place with the Caroline's crew, one of the
latter, Amos Durfee, had been shot through the head. MacLeod seems to have
been a talkative braggart ; he was known to be fond of boasting that he " had
shed the Yankee's blood." Not unnaturally, he was arrested at Lewiston, N.Y.,
on a chaige of murder and arson. But happily, as the matter led to great
excitement, and might have caused war, the United States authorities allowed
him to escape.
The next Governor was Sir Charles Bagot, a descendant of Viscount St. John,
the brilliant freethinker of Queen Anne's reign. In English politics, Bagot had
been known as a pronounced Tory, and the Family Compact clique calculated
to gain his aid in wrecking the newly-granted and as yet scarcely established
54 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
Constitution. But they had to do with a high-principled gentleman and an
experienced diplomatist. He had been instracted to maintain the new Con-
stitution of Canada, and he withstood every effort to induce him to swerve from
his duty.
In 1842 the Ashburton Treaty decided the various questions, which had been
for some time under dispute, with regard to the boundary line between Canada
and the United States. It also determined, what was perhaps of still greater
importance to both countries, the extradition of criminals proved guilty of
murder, piracy, arson, robbery, or forgery.
In this year Mr. Francis Hincks entered the ministry in charge of the Finance
Department, for which this statesman, still spared to us (1883), has always
shown such exceptional talent. The Conservatives were indignant against
Bagot for permitting this. He was accused of a leaning towards radic^sm.
Their papers, with the absurd vituperation which both parties then indulged
in, called Hincks " a rebel." Mr. Lafontaine, for many years leader of the
French Canadians, and Mr. Baldwin, soon afterwards took office, the Draper
Ministry resigning. The two political parties were now definitely forming on
the lines of the new system of government, and the French Canadian members
seemed likely on most questions to hold the balance of power between them.
A most important Act was passed by the new Government, prohibiting bribery,
treating, brawling, and the display of party badges at elections. The Tory
newspapers railed at this as a treasonable measure intended to forbid the hoist-
ing of ** the Union Jack of Old England." Sir Charles Bagot had left England
with a weakened constitution and the germs of a malignant disease. These
were still more impaired by the rigours of our winter climate, and the incessant
calumnies of the Family Compact press. He bade farewell to the Canadian
Ministers, who left his sick "chamber in tears. He died in June, 1843. The
Family Compact organ in Toronto called him " an imbecile and a slave." There
can be but one opinion among Canadians of all parties to-day as to his services
to this country.
Sir Charles Metcalfe succeeded him in 1843. Although a Liberal in Eng-
land, no sooner had he arrived in Canatia than he formed a hard and fast
alliance with the Family Compact Opposition, and did his utmost to wrest
from the Baldw^in-Lafontaine Ministrj^ their constitutional right to the official
patronage of Canada. They resignecl accordingly ; all but Mr. Daly, who has
been called " The Canadian Vicar of Bray," and was for some time the sole
Minister in office. He was afterwards joined by Mr. Draper and Mr Viger,
a French Canadian, w^ho, it was vainly hoped, would draw his compatriots
with him. But such a Government could not last. In 1844 there was a new
election, at which, in defiance of law, the Metcalfe party resorted unscrupu-
lously to all kinds of violence to secure victory at the hustings. They did
succeed in obtaining a small majority, but by means that attach a sinister
memory to the Governor-General and the elections of 1844. Never since have
the Canadian people tolerated such interference with their rights as electors.
A Tory, or rather Family Compact, Ministry was formed under Mr. Draper
and Colonel, now Sir Allan MacNab. Mr. Hincks, who had given up his
editorship of the Examiner, and had assumed that of the Pilot at Montreal,
was not now^ in Parliament, having been defeated at OxfoixL
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 55
An event in Canadian journalism occurred on March 4, 1844, when the first
issue of the Globe appeared in Toronto. It was conducted by Mr. George
Brown, then twenty-five years old, the son of Mr. Peter Brown, a builder and
contractor in Edinburgh. Having been introduced at Kingston to several
members of the Baldwin Ministry, he advocated the cause of responsible
government with such vigour in the new journal, that it speedily became
what it still remains — a political power of no mean order.
Among the members of the new Parliament were John A. Macdonald, a
young but rising lawyer of so-called Tory views, and Wolfred Nelson, so late
the leader of the Lower Canadian insurgents. He had served as a military
surgeon in the War of 1812, and so learned somewhat of soldiership, siding
witn Papineau in the long struggle for popular rights which preceded the
insurrection of 1837-8. Nelson endeavoured to restrain the violence which he
foresaw would end in revolt. He won by his personal integrity and magnet-
ism the warmest afiTection from the French Canadians, and when the village
of St Denis, where he lived, was attacked by Oolon,el Gore with his troops,
Dr. Nelson defended the place with a skill and resolution which compelled
the soldiers to retreat. Dr. Nelson nursed with the utmost kindness the
wounded whom the Royalist troops left behind them. He was now returned
for Richelieu, defeating even so powerful an /opponent as Metcalfe, President
of Council. The rest of his life was passed in honour, and in the service of
his country. In 1844 the seat of Government was moved from Kingston to
Montreal.
Metcalfe was now as much attacked by the Liberal or Reform press, and with
the same sillv rodomontade of invective, as the Tory press had employed
against his predecessor, Bagot. He was called "a false-hearted despot,"
* Charles the Simple," " Old Squaretoes," as if such mud-throwing did not
degrade those from whom it came more than the statesman attacked by it.
But Metcalfe did not lack defenders. Dr. Egerton Ryerson defended "the
Governor in a series of articles in The Britisli Colonisty the servile tone of
which would hardly at the present day suit the taste of any political party.
In 1844, however, the pamphlet had its eflect on public opinion, and Dr.
Ryerson was rewarded for his zeal with the valuable appointment of Chief
Superintendent of Schools for Upper Canada. For many years he was the
autocrat of our Public School system, in building up which, if he made some
mistakes, mischievous enough in their way, he was still of great and lasting
benefit to our country's system of education. The management of the Com-
mon School system of the Province by Dr. Ryerson commenced in 1846.
The Draper Ministry continued during the governorship of Sir C. Metcalfe
and his successors, Earl Cathcart and Lord Elgin. William Henry Draper,
who with Sir A. MacNab led the Tory party in Upper Canada, was the son
of an English clergjrman, born in 1801. He had run away to sea, and at last
settled at " Little York " as a lawyer. He had great personal magnetism and
suavity of address, and his musical and experienced voice added to the effect
of his otherwise not brilliant oratory in the Assembly. He lived till 1877.
In 1845 one of those terrible fires, which seem peculiarly the curse of Can-
adian cities, visited Quebec ; twice in succession it swept over the city until
twenty-four thousand people were made homeless. The English people gener-
56 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
ously subscribed £100,000 for their relief, to which the Parliament of Canada
added £35,000.
Lord Metcalfe — for the Governor had been raised to the peerage — ^was a
sufferer from that most terrible of all diseases, cancer. He was obliged to
return to England, where, under sufferings borne with affecting fortitude, he
died.
The most importairt political event of this Parliament was a bill introduced
by the Draper Ministry, to pay all losses occasioned to the private property of
Loyalists in Upper Canada. This was no doubt intended as a bonus to the
Draper party in the Province, and was to be defrayed from the revenues
arising from tavern and hotel licenses. The French Canadian members agreed
to this proposal pix>vided that similar indemnification was given to the Loyal-
ists in their own Province. Six commissioners were accordingly deputed to
make an estimate of the bonus so incurred in both Provinces. But they found
their task a difficult one. It was in many instances impossible to determine
whether the losses caused by military operations had befallen Loyalists or
insurgents, and the amount of compensation claimed mounted much higher
than the ministry had anticipated. When (1846) the commissioners sent in
their report, it appeared that at least £100,000 would be required. Mr. Draper
endeavoured to compromise matters by a bill proposing to issue, in Provincial
Debentures, £9,986, to be repaid by the duty on Marriage Licenses. With
this no one was satisfied.
Lord Elgin, the new Governor-General, relieved Lord Cathcatt in 1847.
The Draper Ministry were getting more and more unpopular ; the champions
of responsible government were far abler men than any in the ministerial
ranks, and such journals as the Montreal Pilot and the Toronto Olobe exposed
the weakness and unconstitutional character of Mr. Draper's policy. The
country was against them. The other burning question which the earlier
Reformers had urged, the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, was now
agitated anew. The power of the Family Compact, which had been the bul-
wark of the Reserves, had by this time all but vanished Dr. Strachan, who
had wielded that power, was relegated from his place as a politician to his true
position as a clergyman.
During this year our countrymen did much to give aid to the famine-
stricken people of Ireland, when a continuous stream of emigration set in to
Canada as well as the United States. In 1847 fully 70,000 Irish emigrants
had landed at Quebec before August. They were the least fit to survive
either the tropical summer or the arctic winter of Canada, and too often
they were fever-stricken as they landed from the crowded steerage. Again
and again as they wandered through the land, these hapless sufferers carried
the germs of death into the houses where they received shelter.
"mien Parliament met at Montreal in June, 1847> the Governor announced
that the English Government was willing to put into the chaise of Canada
the entire control of the Post Office department, and he also made the import-
ant communication that the duties which England had imposed on Canadian
imports would henceforth be removed. He advised, for military reasons, the
construction of a railway between Halifax and Quebec This is the line now
called the '' Intercolonial." It has never yet paid its expenses, is likely to
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 57
pay less now that a shorter route can be had, and it is satisfactory to think
that it will be the last " military railway" in peaceful Canada.
A dissolution of Parliament now took place, and as the election was this
time held in accordance with law, the popular feeling found expression ; the
Liberal or Reform members had the majority, and such men as Hincks, Robert
Baldwin, Hume Blake and Malcolm Cameron, were returned. Louis Papineau,
who, like the other leaders of the movement of 1847, .had come back to
Canada, was elected, with Dr. Wolfred Nelson, from Lower Canada. Accord-
ingly, when Parliament met, Mr. Draper s Ministry resigned, and the Baldwin
and Lafontaine Cabinet assumed their place. Although Papineau reappeared
in political life, he never regained the prestige which he possessed in the early
part of his career. His undeniable eloquence did not compensate for a petu-
lant vanity and a certain lack of political common sense. Henceforth he all
but disappears from Canadian history. His memory is still revered among
his compatriots, and he rests, not without honour, in the shadow of the elm
trees at Montebello.
During this year measures were passed in connection with this Imperial
renunciation of ditferential duties which ensured to Canada entire freedom
in controlling her own trade. Thus early had responsible government
brought with it a second important step towards nationality. In the course
of the following year the completion of the Si Lawrence Canal gave an
immediate impulse to the Canadian export trade.
In January, 1847, Parliament met again at Montreal, when the Governor
delivered an address of the congratulatory kind, vulgarly known as " taffy,"
about the general prosperity of the country, with which we have been familiar
since the titular Governor ceased to govern and learned to flatter. Then the
real Government work of the session began by Mr. Lafontaine bringing up
the subject of the rebellion losses, and introducing a bill to pay the moiety of
the Lower Canadian losses left unpaid by Mr. Draper's Bill. This put a
telling weapon, that of appeal to "loyalty," into the hands of the Tories. They
loudly maintained that it w^s unjust to require Upper Canada to pay any
portion of the Lower Canadian losses, but that the injustice became an msult
to all they most venerated if they were to pay actual rebels. It was main-
tained that now rebels like Drs. Kussell and Papineau were in power — ^that
Lafontaine, who had been in prison as a rebel in 1837, was governing the
country — was it to be expected that they would neglect this opportunity to
reimburse their followers ? To this it was replied, and seemingly with truth,
that the ministry were only carrying out the policy of their predecessors in
office ; that the object of the bill was simply to pay for all bona fide losses in-
curred by non-combatants, and that the Upper Canada losses had been paid
from a license fund to which Lower Canada also had contributed.
lint the Opposition had at last got hold of a good election cry ; all the
loyalist feeling was enlisted on their side on a question which was not one of
"loyalty," but of simple fair play. The Omnge body, in particular, were so
mistaken at the time as to think Protestantism endangered by the Govern-
ment doing a simple act of justice. In Pakenham, near Ottawa, a clergyman
named Mulkins was known to have written in favour of the measure ; he was
an Orangeman. The fieeling was so intense that he had to give up his parish.
68 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
The Government gave him in recompense the lucrative post of chaplain to
Kingston Penitentiary. Worse still, the old race hatred broke out anew, and
to be rid of Lower Canada, many of these ultra-loyal Tories demanded
annexation to the States. However, all this was not the outcry of a minority
in Canada, and the Eebellion Losses Bill passed by a majority of sixteen ; and
having, as a matter of course, passed the Upper House, received the formal
assent of the Governor-General on April 26, 1849. A mob of the defeated
faction had gathered around the Parliament House. As the Governor-General
left the building he was insulted and pelted by these zealous " Loyalists ; " his
life was at one time in serious danger. The members of the Assembly were
hustled and beaten. At last the Parliament House was attacked ; a zealous
Toiy member from the Eastern Townships — alas! the disgraceful fact is historic —
applied the torch ; the dry woodwork was soon in a blaze that threatened to fire
the city. So the Parliament House was destroyed ; with it perished a literary
treasure never to be replaced, the library containing many hundred volumes
bearing on the history of Canada. It was an act of sheer Vandalism, of which
men like Mackenzie and Wolfred Nelson would have been incapable. The
partisans of Mr. Draper repeated similar scenes elsewhere ; in Toronto Baldwin
and Lafontaine were burned in effigy, a practice derived from the witchcraft of
the dark ages. In Montreal the troops had to be called out ; the mob threw
stones, were fired on, and one man killed. D'sgusted at the insults of the Tory
"Eoyalists," the representative of royalty wished to resign his position as
Governor-General, but the authorities in England warmly approved of his action
in thus sustaining constitutional government, and entreated him to remain in
office. Addresses from all parts of Canada, especially from the Eeform party,
were presented to Lord Elgin, expressing their regret for the treatment he had
received from a minority of Canadians. In view of this outrage, it was resolved
to remove the seat of Government from Montreal to Toronto for the next ten
vears, and afterwards that Parliament should meet alternately in Quebec and
Toronto.
About this time Canadian farmers began to feel the depressing effects of the
abrogation of the system of protection in England, for the Canadian producer
had also been protected against American and other grain. Now that this had
ceased to be the case, the St. Lawrence trade was seriously damaged, and a
depressing effect produced on business all through the country. But this was
to a great extent remedied by a measure, first proposed in 1850, for reciprocity
or free trade with the United States. In this year also an important muni-
cipal ref oim was carried, extending the principle of local self-government, both
in Upper and Lower Canada. By this most salutaiy measure, each county
and township was charged with the control of its local taxation and expendi-
ture. At this time our present county and township system was formed, thus
relieving Parliament of the care of a multitude of local details, and the
general revenue from expenditure as to which the municipalities them-
selves could best judge. The agitation on the Clergy Resei'ves abuse now
became more intense ; it produced a difference though not a division in the
Reform ranks, those who held uncompromisingly to the abolition of the
Reserves being known in political slang as " Clear Grits." Meanwhile the
prosperity of the country' was being advanced by the construction of the
THE DOMINION OF CANADA, 59'
Grand Trunk, Great Western, and Northern Eailways. The first of them was
projected by Sir A, MacNab, who had great personal influence in the w,esteni
part of Upper Canada. Numerous lighthouses were also erected at various
points on the Gulf of St Lawrence. In the yeA 1851 Canada made a very
creditable appearance at the Great Exhibition in London, the first of a series
of such exhibitions which, held in the chief countries of the world, have
greatly promoted international commerce.
All Canada, and especially the English-speaking Province, was rapidly
developing her industrial resources. One of the foremost to use steam vessels
on her lakes and rivers, she was now energeticajly interpenetrating her
vast plains with the great lines of railway above mentioned, which, in the
course of thirty years, have branched out in everj' direction, covering the
face of the land with a network which connects with every industrial centre.
In October, 1851, Mr. Hincks became Premier. His keen practical sense and
financial tact led him to take great interest in the foundation of the Grand
Trunk Railway, to which, in 1852, aid was given by Parliament ; the session
of that year being known as the railroad session. The year 1852 is marked
by a great fire in Montreal, 10,000 people being made homeless.
The year 1854 witnessed three remarkable events in Canadian politics. The
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States procured for our people the right
to send most of the products of Canada free of duty to the United States ; it
was to be in force for ten years. Yet more importiant is the step made by
this Treaty to Canada's commercial independence ; for the first time we were
allowed a voice in framing a treaty that concerned Canadian interests.
The long-vexed question of the Clergy Reserves was now set finally at rest.
These wild and at the time unprofitable lands were to be sold, and the fund
thus obtained to be at the disposal of the ditierent municipalities, and to be
used for the benefit of the local schools, or for any other purpose of municipal
improvement. But in order not to act harshly, such portions as were already
occupied for church use were to form a small fund for church endowment.
And in Lower Canada the Seigniorial Tenures Act abolished the incumbrance,
long felt as an obstacle to progress, of the feudal tenures of property. It was
now arranged that each seigneur should receive a certain sum from his tenant,
tlie balance being made up from a sum granted by the Canadian Parliament.
England being this year at war with Russia, Canada sent a gift of £20,000 as
a contribution towards the relief of the wives and children of soldiers and
sailors killed in battle. It is to be hope I that such offerings of Christian
charity may soon be all the share Canada will take in European wars.
In 1855 Sir Edmund Head came as Governor-General. The first regular
volunteer corps was formed in consequence of an amendment to the Militia Act
paiised this year. In 1856 a further advance in the freedom of our institutions
was made by applying the elective principle to our Legislative Council. The
change was to be made gradually ; the nominees of the Crown at the time living
were to retain their position for life ; as they dropped off* their successors were
to be elected. At this time our Parliament subsidized a line of steamers
between Montreal and Quebec and Liverpool, to compete with the American
line subsidized by the Engli.sh Government. The seat of Government was now
proposed to be changed finally to Ottawa, a change made by suggestion of the
60 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNIY.
Crown, and, for entirely military reasons, the suggestion of the Duke of Wel-
lington at the conclusion of the War of 1812. This change was, for obvious
reasons, unpopular with the people of the older and more central cities, and
caused much opposition to the Cartier-Macdonald Ministry, now in power.
In 1857 a commercial crisis came over the country, and, together with a suc-
cession of bad harvests, much depressed our commerce. To remedy this a new
Customs Act was passed, imposing heavier duties on certain imported goods.
In 1858 attention was turned to the proper protection of our fisheries. The
beautiful edifice of our Toronto University was now completed ; it is in the
Norman Gothic style, but treated with an elaborate luxuriance of rich decora-
tion. The coinage was tSiis year changed ftom the old cumbrous system of
pounds, shillings and pence to the more facile decimal system.
In 1858 the removal of the seat of Government to Ottawa brought about the
downfall of the Cartier-Macdonald Ministry. Geo. R Cartier, who had succeeded
to Lafontaine's influence in Lower Canada, was the ablest leader his compatriots
have yet known. Sir John A. Macdonald, the most notable of the Conservative
leaders whom this extraordinary ministerial movement brought into power, was
born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, in 1815, and came to Canada in 1820 with
his father, who settled at Kingston. He was educated at the Kingston Gram-
mar-School, where his chief taste seemed to be for mathematics. At twenty-one
he was called to the bar. As has been mentioned, he defended, with benefit to
his own skill, in a cause where acquittal was hopeless. Von Schultz, the leader of
the raid on Prescott in 1838. At the age of thirty-one he became member for
Kingston in the Conservative interest. For some years we can find, in the old
files of newspapers preserved in the Parliamentary Library, Toronto, but scant
mention of J. A. Macdonald's speeches in Parliament. He wa^ biding his time,
and maturing both the skill in constitutional law and the extraordinary know-
ledge of men, especially political men, by which he has been distinguished
evei since. Although his political education was acquired in turbulent times
and under the Family Compact Opposition, which did its best to wreck the cause
of responsible government under Sir C. Metcalfe, Sir John Macdonald's good
sense and naturally liberal tendencies have caused him to take up every really
needful reform just as the public mind became ripe to receive it. Indeed,
political tact and adroitness in discerning the right moment and the right man
are the chief characteristics of this statesman. He has passed through every
office in the Administration. He was Receiver-General under Mr. Draper in
1847. Again he held a portfolio under the MacNab-Morin Coalition in 1854,
which caiTied the two important Eeform measures — the abolition of feudal
tenures and secularization of the Clergy Reserves. Having superseded Sir Allan
MacNab, whom age and gout had unfitted for active leadership, as the chief of
the Conservatives, he was supported by the influence, all-powerful as long as he
lived, of Geoige L. Cartier with the people of Lower Canada.
Mr. George Brown, editor of the Okbe^ was then called on to form a minis-
try, as being the leader of the party opposed to that of the late Administration.
This was at length accomplished, Mr. Brown being Premier, with Mr. Dorion
to represent the Lower Canadians. But, according to our constitution, the
ministers lost their seats in Parliament on accepting office until re-elected by
the people ; their numbers in parliamentary strength were thus so much weak-
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 61
ened, that on the Conservatives moving a vote of want of confidence, the
Reformers were defeated. Of course the Reform Ministry would at once have
appealed to the constituencies, but by a very arbitrary use of the power left
with a Gk>vemor-GeneraI, Sir F. Head refused to sanction this. In conse-
quence of this action of the (Governor, the Macdonald-Cartier Ministry were
reinstated in power, the Brown-Dorion Government having held office only
three days. Much bitterness was caused by this adroit but not very high-
principled manoeuvre.
In August the Atlantic cable was first laid, an event attended with great
rejoicing in Canada. But in this, the first efibrt, the success was not perma-
nent as yet
On the 9th of September of this year that patriot, Robert Baldwin, died
at the homestead his father had built at Spadina, in west Toronto.
In 1859, Parliament held its session in Toronto. It was now found that
there was a continual deficiency in the revenues of the Province, and as it
was considered inexpedient to reduce the expenditure on railways and other
public works, the duties on exports were considerably increased. On October
13th, the monument of General Brock on Queenston Heights was unveiled in
the presence of a vast assemblage, including the volunteer corps, with whom
were many veterans who had fought under Brock in his last battle. As the
Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawi^nce was now approaching completion, our
Parliament sent an invitation to the Queen of England to visit Canada and
preside at its opening. Next year she replied, declining the visit to Canada
for herself, but intimating that the Prince of Wales would take her place at
the opening ceremonies. It had long been felt that while in progress, educa-
tion, and sul intellectual and industrial results. Upper Canada was far ahead of
the French Province, yet according to the constitutional arrangement, whereby
the two Provinces had an equal representation in Parliament, the interests of
the English-speaking Province were on all occasions made subservient to those
of the French by the fact that, while in Upper Canada there were two political
. parties whose numbers were, as a rule, equally balcmced, the French members
voted as a unit, and were thus enabled to bold the balance of power. To
remedy this a Reform Convention was held in Toronto this year (1859), in
order, to devise means for establishing the principle, on which all the late
Curlifionentary reforms in England have been based, of representation by popu-
tioiL But the French Canadians had always been successful in their
opposition to this measure, which they knew would weaken their political
importance. It was therefore proposed to establish a Federal Union between
the Provinces, in place of the existing system of Legislative Union. This
suggestion, first proposed at the Toronto Convention of 1859, was the germ of
the great constitutional change since carried out so successfully in the Con-
federation of Canada.
In November of this year, Sir J. B. Macauley, who had so long held with
honour the position of Chief Justice of Common Pleas, died, ag^ sixty-six.
Theyear 1860 opened with what was felt as a national calamity — as it tended
to impair confidence already shaken by previous losses of our Canadian line
steamers — ^the foundering of the mail steamer Hungarian gS Cape Sable. All
on board were lost. Since that time increased vigilance has happily prevented
62 HISTORY OF BRANT COUXTY.
the recurrence of such disasters, and the Allan line steamers have never for-
feited public confidence. In August of this year the magnificent Victoria
Bri(^e was opened by the Prince of Wales, who, on visiting this country and
the United States, was received by both nations with the most generous hos-
pitality. The Victoria Bridge is one of the wonders of the New World As
a work of human art it is not unworthy of comparison with the great works
of nature amid which it stands, spanning our mightiest river, with its multi-
plied arches of massive granite. Such a work is a token of our national
progress.
" Ever reaping something Tiew,
That which it has done hut earnest of the things that it skall do"
In the same summer the Prince^ of Wales also laid the foundation stone of
the new Parliament Buildings at Ottawa, which, from being, as a great writer
resident in Canada has called it, " An Arctic lumber village," was even then
assuming the proportions of one of our leading cities.
In order to illustrate the vast growth of all Canada, and the greater relative
growth of Upper than of the Lower Province, it needs but a glance at the census
returns of the population :
Census of 1841.— Upper Canada, 465,000 ; Lower Canada, 691,000.
" « 1861. " " 1,396,000; " '• 1,111,000.
In October, 1861, Sir Edmund Head was replaced as Governor-Greneral by
Lord Monck. On August 28 the stormy and chequered career of William Lyon
Mackenzie closed in peace in the city of which he had been the first mayor.
Now that the Family Compact and the generation that upheld it are gone, it is
increasingly felt that a debt of gi-atitude is due to this single-hearted patriot
Few other statesmen can show a record so stainless as regards political morality.
In this year also began the calamitous war in the American Republic. At
first and for some time the people of the North seemed, scarcely alive to the
importance of the situation. When awakened from inaction, army after army
swept through the Southern States, and after many a hard-contested field — for
there were no better soldiers than those of the South — ^peace followed the capture
of Richmond. During the war there was in England a strong sympathy with the
rebels. Indeed, considering the national desire to avenge the wars of 1776 and
1812, it is doubtful if the triumph of the Republic was really pleasing to any
class in Great Britain excepting the Irish. But in Canada, with very insigni-
ficant exceptions, the good-will of the entire nation went with the armies of the
North, and we rejoiced when a diflBculty, caused by the seizure by an American
commodore of two Confederate envoys on board the Treiit, was happily settled
bv their release. A considerable number of Canadians enlisted in the Northern
army. The demand for horses, grain, and food supplies of all kinds among our
Northern neighbours led to the circulation of a considerable amount of money
in Upper Canada, and thus proved a stimulus to trade, the withdrawal of
which, when war prices were no longer offered, produced a corresponding depres-
sion. While on the subject of the war, we may mention, although the occurrences
took place some three years later, that Canada was well nigh involved in trouble
with the United States by the lawless and ungenerous action of certain refugees
from the South. These men, while coming to our land as guests seeking a
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 63
peaceful shelter, abused our hospitality by acts of brigandage, for which they
attempted to make Canada their base. One piratical expedition effected the
seizure of two small craft In Lake Erie, which, however, were abandoned ;
another, led by Mason, son of the Envoy, seized on the Trent steamer, and made
a raid on St. Albans, a small town in Vermont The Canadian authorities
apprehended the raiders, who, however, succeeded in obtaining their release un
some legal technicality. In this year died Lafontaine, who had been the repre-
sentative of .Lower Canada in the Ministry of Bobert Ba^ldwin.
In 1864, a Convention of thirty-three representatives from both Provinces
met at Quebec to discuss the question of Confederation. It was unanimously
voted that a proposal for effecting this great measure should be submitted to
the Legislature. In this year, the Sandfield Macdonald Ministry having resigned
office, and that of Sir E. P. Tache, which succeeded, not surviving more than two
months, overtures were made by the ministry to George Brown, leader of the
Beform Opposition, that in order to get rid of difficulties which threatened a
political dead-lock, a Coalition Government should be formed, of which three
Beformers, including Mr. Brown, should represent the Opposition element. This
was agreed to, and the Coalition Administration was formed. The principal
members of the Coalition were John A. Macdonald, G. E. Cartier, and George
Brown, with Messrs. McDougall and Gait. Mr. Brown then moved for the
appointment of a Committee on Constitutional Difficulties, and very soon a
scheme was brought before Parliament, which was based on that of the Beform
Convention of 1859. In 1865 this proposal, embodied in seveuty-two i-esolutions,
was adopted by the Parliament of Canada, and by those of Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, fearing to lose
political importance by such a union, declined it for the time being. In the same
year John A. Macdonald, G. E. Cartier, Alexander Gait and George Brown,
were sent as delegates to represent the wishes of the colonies to Lord Palmer-
ston, then at the head of the Government. ' In England the scheme was received
with full approval. As the Eeciprocity Treaty with the United States was
now about to expire, Mr. Gait and Mr. Hojvland were sent to Washington to
negotiate as to its renewal, in connection with which transaction a difficulty
arose in the Cabinet, and Mr. George Brown resigned. The negotiations for
renewing the Treaty failed. In 1866 occurred the raid called the Fenian inva-
sion. The Fenians, an Irish organization for the purpose of achieving the
independence of Ireland, very absurdly resolved to invade Canada, a country
Vhich was the home of thousands of their countrymen. They did not consider
that if Canada could be blotted from the face of the earth, it would not lead
a step nearer to the independence of Ireland. But there is every reason to
believe that this invasion was projected not from any patriotic motive, but to
^et up a sensation among the American Irish, and thus fill the pockets of the
Fenian leaders. On June the first twelve hundred Fenians, well armed, and led
by an ex-officer of the American army named 0*Niel, crossed the Niagara Eiver
near Buffalo, occupied the dismantled ramparts of Fort Erie, and marched to a
place called Eidgeway. A body of regular troops was sent to meet them with
uine hundred volunteers, from Hamilton and Toronto, commanded by Colonel
Booker. Too impatient to await the co-operation of the regulars,Colonel Booker
advanced towards Eidgeway. Here the Fenians were found strongly entrenched;
64 HISTORY OF BRAXT COUNTY.
a smart skirmish took place ; and upon a false, and, under the circumstances,
absurd alarm of cavalry, the order was given to form square. This movement
being inefficiently carried out, threw our force into confusion, of which the
enemy took advantage by firing on the disordered ranks. The volunteers had
to retire, No. 1 Company, Queen's Own Rifles, Toronto, covering the retreat
with coolness and skill Our force lost an officer, Ensign McElachren, of No. 1
Company, Queen's Own, and six men killed, and four officers and nineteen
men wounded Several attempts at a raid were also made on the Lower Cana-
dian Frontier, but the Volunteer Militia were there in such force that the
Fenians 'effected nothing, until the United States authorities took cognizance of
the matter, and seized the arms of these brigands. The Fenian prisoners were
tried and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to imprisonment for life
in the Penitentiary, whence, however, they were released after several years
confinement. A public funeral was given to our brave volunteers, and a
monument to their memory has been set up in the Queen's Park, Toronto.
On the 8th of June, 1866, our Parliament met in the new Parliament Build*
ings, Ottawa. This magnificent palace is a fit mansion for the true governing
power of our country, and it is fitting that the free nations of the New World
should erect for their Legislatures edifices as beautiful as any -palace of Old
World despotism. Our Parliament Buildings form three sides of a square, the
central and largest being built in the twelfth century Gk)thic style. The stone
is a cream-coloured sandstone from the Ottawa quarries, and the arches of doors
and windows are of a warm red sandstone. In the centre is a lofty tower of
statety proportions, and the library, acircDlar structure with flying buttresses, is
one of the most beautiful features of alL
Two disasters befell Canada in this year. First, a terribly destructive fire
occurred in Quebec, with loss of 2,500 houses and not a few lives. Secondly,
the failure of one of our oldest banks, the Bank of Upper Canada^ took place.
As almost all the banks in the counliy had taken the Upper Canada l^ink's
paper, quite a panic ensued. However, the other banks stood their ground, and
the crisis passed over.
At the elections held in New Brunswick that year, it was found that a con-
siderable majority pronounced in favour of Confederation, in spite of a persistent
opposition to it, kept up in both the Maritime Provinces by the popular states-
man, Joseph Howa An Act was now passed in the English Parliament
determining the 1st of Jidy, 1867, as the date when the Coidfederation should
become an accomplished fact. This was carried out amid gatherings of our
Volunteer Militia corps, and general festivities. And ever since that year, the
1st of July, the birthday of the United Canadian Nation, is kept as a festival
by every true Canadian. By another Act of the British Parliament, passed at
the same time, a loan of £3,000,000 was guaranteed for* the Intercolonial Bail-
way connecting the Maritime Provinces with Canada.
By this important change in our Constitution, the legislative power for
Canada is vested in our Parliament, which meets at Ottawa, and consists of a
Senate and a House of Commons. The latter is the really governing body, and
consists of a hundred and eighty-two members ; eigBfy-two from Upper Canada,
or Ontario, as it is now named, sixty-five from Quebec, nineteen from Nova
Scotia, fifteen from New Brunswick, and one frt)m Manitoba. The Speaker is
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 65
elected by the House, and the Premier and other ministers must be members.
The Government is conducted by a minister able to command the votes of a
majority in the House. He, as representing the will of the people, is the true
ruler of Canada, and if the House of Commons votes a want of confidence in
his administration, it is the usual course to dissolve Parliament and hold a
general election, so that the people may express their will. With the ministry
rests the disposal of all patronage that does 'not belong to the ministry of each
Province. The Senate consists of seventy-two members, appointed nominally
by the Grovemor-General of Canada, but in reality by the administration for
the time being. The Speaker of the Senate is nominated by the Governor-
Creneral, and has a deliberative as well as a casting vote.
As the new senators are appointed only by death vacancies, it is obvious that
it depends on pure accident whether any particular administration may have the
opportunity to appoint so many of its own supporters that a future adminis-
tration would be hampered with a Senate of its opponents fixed there for life.
But the Senate has no real power ; no interest is taken in its debates, which are
never printed in the papers ; it is a survival of irresponsible Government.
The Speaker has no vote in deliberation, but has a casting vote when the
votes on both aides are equal. The Govemor-Gteneral has, in name, the power
of dissolving Parliament, but this is now always exercised at the request of the
Ministry : the Governor-General has other powers which he only exercises as a
matter of form, and as carrying out the wishes expressed by the ministers and
Parliament. An injudicious or incendiary Governor-General might possibly do
some mischief, but with the prudent and courteous gentlemen whom the English
ministry have for some time sent, there can be no thought of interference with
our free Constitution. Each of the Provinces has a Legislature of its own, meeting
once a year for four years. These local Legislatures have control of all matters
which are strictly confined to the Province and do not affect the whole of Canada,
such as Education, Police Regulation, Direct Taxation for Municipal Purposes,
and Local Public Works. All Canada, now styled the Dominion, from this time
assumed all debts previously contracted by the several Provinces, Ontario and
Quebec undertaking the debt of the [former Province of the United Canadas.
Between the several provinces, from the Pacific to the Atlantic sea-board, the
most absolute free trade prevails. In the Constitution thus happily established,
slight changes, which to some seem desirable, may be made as time goes on and
experience teaches new lessons of political wisdom. The constitution of the
Senate may be made elective or otherwise amended. The Civil Service, it is to be
hoped, may be reformed^ and the Provinces saved the expense of each maintaining
a petty king, who does nothing but go through obsoleto ceremonial forms, and
give entertainments, which those who desire them ought to provide at their own
expense. The history of Canada since Confederation, belongs so much to the
heated arena 9f modem politics, that we shall but glance over the leading events
that are its landmarks to the present day. In 1868 John A. Macdonald obtained
the title of baronet for his colleague, who now became Sir George E. Cartier, Bart,
being content with knighthood for himself. In 1869, Francis Hincks, now Sir
Francis, entered the Conservative Grovemment as Finance Minister, and rendered
Canadian commerce an important service, in contriving the disuse, in the traffic of
this country, of the depreciated American silver. He issued a temporary paper
66 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
currency 25 cents, which effectively answered its purpose. In 1870, British
Columbia was admitted into the Confederation, agreement being made by the
Dominion Qovernment that the Pacific Railway should be completed. In 1872
Sir George Cartier, who since Confederation had been less necessary to his Lower
Canadian supporters, inasmuch as there was no longer a grievance for him to
champion, was defeated for Montreal East, and had to seek political refuge in the
distant Manitoban county of Provencher, where he had never set foot In 1873
a sudden storm burst on the hitherto prosperous ministry of Sir John Macdonald.
It was suspected that Sir John had taken, for party election purposes, a large sum
of money from Sir Hugh Allan, who had an Atlantic Mail contract with the
Government, and who was the favoured applicant for the Canada Pacific Railroad
contract. Against Sir John's personal character not a word can be said ; he lias
never made money for himself out of politics, but it was felt, even among some
Conservatives, that Sir John's action in this matter was wrong. Since that
time the Canadian people, by twice choosing Sir John to lead their Govern-
ment, have shown that they place confidence in him once more ; but though the
" Pacific Scandal," by some called the " Pacific Slander," has been condoned, it
cannot be justified. On November 5, 1873, Sir John Macdonald's Government
fell, after a brilliant speech from Sir John in his place in Parliament, which
however failed to avert political ruin, at least for the time. Many Conservatives
voted against him. Lord Dufiferin thereon sent for Mr. Mackenzie, who formed
a Reform Government, including Richard J. Cartwright as Minister of Finance,
and Edward Blake as Minister of Justice. The Reform party continued in office
till 1878, when a reaction took place in favour of the Conservatives, in conse-
quence of their advocacy of Protection as a remedy for the hard times which,
unfortunately for the Reformers, had prevailed during their term of office. Sir
John Macdonald's Ministry was coincident with a return of commercial pros-
perity ; which so completely impressed on the minds of the majority ot the
electors the belief that prosperity and protection were related as cause and
effect, that they again returned Sir John and his party into power at the last
elections— 1882. '
Such has been our political history since 1868 gave us Confederation.
The other most noteworthy events have been the adjustment of the griev-
ances which made Nova Scotia a malcontent partner in Confederation. This
was effected in 1809, through negotiations with Mr. Howe. The Dominion
Government then undertook to pay the Nova Scotia debt. In 1870 an
abortive insurrection, headed by one Riel, took place at Red River, when
Dr. Schultz, Scott, and other Canadian citizens were seized and imprisoned by
Riel. Schultz contrived to escape, whereon Riel had Scott brought out into the
coui-tyard of Fort Garry, and after the mockery of a trial, most barbarously
shot. A military expedition was sent to Red River, and the fiasco of an insur-
rection, which was mainly got up by some half-breed French Canadians, was
easily put down. How to act with regartl t<i Riel was a difficult political crux.
The deepest indignation at the murder of Scott was felt equally by both parties
in Ontario, but it Riel were hanged, the Lower Canadians would turn against
the Government which ordered that act of justice. Sir John's Government tem-
porized with the matter ; that of Mr. Mackenzie, which succeeded in 1873, put
a stop to the vexed question by pardoning Riel. The wretch survived in obscure
THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
67
poyerty amid the utter execration of all good men. At the same time a Fenian
raid took place near Stanbrid^e, but was utterly repulsed with the loss of ten
men by a handful of the Montreal and Huntington Militia under the command
of Colonel Bagot This battle, a skirmish, took place at Eccles Mill, near Stan-
bridge, in the Eastern Townships, Lower Canada.
In 1878, Canada sustained a loss in the departure of Lord Dufiferin, who had
been perhaps the most popular Governor-General ever known in our country.
Of course, since responsible Government was established, the Governor-General
ceased in any true sense to govern, yet Lord Dufferin's tenure of the position
showed how much social benefit could be gained by the presence among us of a
highly cultivated, genial, and most sagacious statesman. Our literature in paili-
cular has reason to regret his departure, and the kindly interest taken by him
in literary work. He was succeeded in November of the same year by the
Maiquis of Lome and his wife. Princess Louise.
The Dominion of Canada now includes the North-West Territories, ceded to
Canada by the British Government in 1870, and admitted into Confederation in
1872. To this vast territory, teeming with the elements of industrial and
agricultural prosperity, a continuous tide of emigration has set in for the last
several years. Cities which only existed on paper ten years ago, are now thriv-
ing towns with newspapers and churches. Winnipeg has become the focus of a
marvellous colonization movement, attended with an eager energy unknown in
any enterprise of Canadian colonization, from the days of Samuel de Champlain
until now. It seems not unlikely that the enormous increase of English-speak-
ing population certain to people what is now unbroken prairie, will make the
English-speaking Canadian vote supreme in the Grovernment of our country,
and that thus we shall be delivered from the political domination of the French
wedge which is driven in between the Maritime Provinces and Upper Canada,
between the Liberal-fieform and the Liberal-Conservative parties which have
so long conceded to it the balance of power.
Statistics.
In order to estimate the vast growth of the Canada of our day, we need but
glance at the following statistics, taken from the last census returns :
Census of 1881, Dominion of Canada.
Provtuoe.
Prince Edward Island
Nova Sootia
New Branawick ,
Quebec
Ontario
Manitoba
British Columbia
Territuriea
Grand totala
5
2,133 square miles.
20,007 "
27,174 "
188,688 "
101,733 "
123,200 "
341,305 «
2,666,252 "
3,470,392 «
Population.
108,891
440,572
321,233
1,359,027
1,923,228
65,954
49^469
56,446
4,324,810
68
HISrrOBY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
Population of 1871 and 1881, compared by Electoral Du$tricts, within their
present limits (1881).
Elbctorjo. l>i«nicn^
(Prince Edward IslaiuL)
Prince .
Queen's
King's.
Totals of Prince Edward Island
TenitorUl
SnpoHciet in
ftcra.
Population.
1871.
1881.
Rcpre*
I Motataon.
467,000
486,400
412,000
28,302
42,651
23,068
34,347
48,111
26,433
1,365,400 94,021 : 108,891
{Nova Scotia.)
Invemei
Vict^
Cape Breton ..
Richmond ....
Gnysborough . .
Halifax
Lunenburg
Queen's
Shelbome
Yannouth
Digby
Annapolis
King's
Hants
Ck>lche8ter
Pictou
Antiji;onish ....
Comberland . . .
Totals of KoYa Scotia
886,800
767,000
748,000
398,880
1,060,000
1,342,032
714,000
681,900
607,000
471,000
653,500
837,000
519,000
753,000
837,000
720,496
353,520
1,031,875
I
13,382,003
23,415
11,346
26,454
14,268
16,555
56,963
23,834
10,554
12,417
18,550
17,037
18,121
21,510
21,301
23,331
32,114
16,512
23,518
387,800
25,651
12.470
31,258
15,121
17,808
67,917
28,583
10,577
14,913
21,284
19,881
20,598
23,469
23,359
26,720
35,535
18,060
27,368
440,572 I
2
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
2
1
1
21
{New Brunswick,)
Albert
St. John, City ....
St. John, County
Charlotte
King's
Queen's
Sunbury
York
Carleton
Victoria
'Westmoreland . . .
Kent
Northumberland .
Gloucester .*.
Restigouche
Totals of New Brunswick
429,000
810
374,000
847,000
901,000
947,0(fO
770,000
2,222,000
772,000
2,234,000
822,000
1,101,000
3,046.640
1,077,960
1,849,000
10,672
28,805
23,315
25,882
24,593
13,847
6,824
27,140
19,938
11,641
29,335
19,101
20,116
18,810
5,575
17,393,410 285,594
12,329
26,127
26,839
26,087
25,617
14,017
6,651
30,397
23,366
15,686
37,719
22,618
25,109
21,614
7,058
321,233
16
THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
69
Population, &c. — Continued.
Electoral Dutkictb.
{ProvvMe of Quebec.)
Bonayenture
GhuBpe
Rimouski %
Temiscooata.
KjunouraAka
L'lalet
Montmagny.
Bellechaase
Levis.
Dorchester.
Beauce
Lotbiniere
Megantic
Nicolet
Dmmmond and Arthabaska
Richmond and Wolfe
Compton
Sberbrooke
Sjtaostead
Yamaaka
Bagot
Shefford.
• Brome •
Richeliea,
St Hyacinthe
RonYiile
Ibenrille
Miflsiaqtioi
Yercheres.
Chamoly
8t Jean.
lApndrie
Napierrille
Ghateangoay.
Huntingdon-
Beanbamoia
Soulangea.
Vaudreuil
Chicoutimi and Sagaenay. . .
Charlevoix.
Montmorency.
Quebec, Eaat
Quebec, Centre.
Quebec, West
Quebec, County
Portneuf
Champlain
_ Trois-Kivierea.
Sr. Maorice.
Territorial
Superflciei in
acres.
2,106,681
3,156,280
1,178,290
651,235
507,625
398,953
430,370
364,140
583,330
1,176,595
460,640
475,740
379,320
838,019
761,621
883,400
143,300
260,600
167,200
214,840
357,762
300,455
124,215
172,823
157,635
120,960
229,173
124,812
87,319
112,106
110,606
97,120
159,840
255,350
89,280
87,820
117,034
59,745,821
1,233,000
1,376,000
5,270
897
1,219
1,696,000
1,068,800
5,856,000
11,300
1,614,080
Population.
1871.
16,923
18,729
27,418
22,491
21,254
13,517
13,555
17,637
24,831
17,779
27,253
20,606
18,879
23,262
31,892
20,036
13,665
8,516
13,138
16,317
19,491
19,077
13,757
20,048
18,310
17,634
15,413
16,922
12,717
10,498
12,122
11,861
11,688
16,166
16,304
14,757
10,808
11,003
22,980
15,611
12,085
28,305
18,188
13,206
19,607
23,216
21,643
8,414
10,658
188L
18,908
25,001
33,791
25,484
22,181
14,917
15,268
18,068
27,980
18,710
32,020
20,857
19,056
26,611
37,360
26,339
19,581
12,221
15,556
17,091
21,199
23,233
15,827
20,218
20,631
18,547
14,459
17,784
12,449
10,858
12,265
11,436
10,511
14,393
15,495
16,005
10,220
11,485
32,409
17,901
12,322
31,900
17,898
12,648
20,278
25,175
26,818
9,296
12,986
Repre-
■entati on.
UlSTOEY OF BKaST COUKTY.
POPULATIOK, &C. — Continued.
Elktoial Dumcn.
15,079
19,993
23,076
15,473
12,742
23,9U3
46,291
37,031
2S,640
11,179
9,472
19,591
15,615
1S,60G
37,892
16,547
17,493
21,638
21, 9i'
15,26
• 12,966
25,078
67,606
21,892
15,856
16,062
49,432
1,19!,516 1,359,027
1,316,
248,130
250,910
73,760
1,390,721
304,992
170,384
1,830,1
117,256
207,835
2U3,370
20,524
7,114
11.873
18,777
17,647
18,344
21,545
13,197
13,530
21,739
10,475
20,716
19,190
13,830
14,935
14,833
16.310
12,407
16,396
21,312
20,336
17.392
14,365
16,607
21,758
17,328
18,706
11,767
19,064
18,316
22,221
0,904
13,294
20,598
22,857
25,082
27,412
13,526
12,929
24.6(49
12,514
22,206
20,032
13,943
19,160
20,965
14,993
14,091
16,314
23,470
81,044
17,313
17,400
20,479
22,209
16,984
23,056
13,310
18,710
17,556
THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
71
Population, &c. — Continued,
EUCnORAL DUTEICTS.
Victoria, SoutL . . .
Victoria, North . . .
Muskoka
Ontario, South ....
Ontario, North.
Toronto, Eaat
Toronto, Centre.... .
Toronto, West
York, East
York, West.
York, North.
Simcoe, South. . .. .
Simcoe, North
PeeL
Cardwell
Wdland.
Niagara
Monck
Lincoln.
Haldimand
WentwoTth, South.,
Wentworth, North.
Hamilton, City
Halton.
Wellington, South .
Wellington, Centre
Wellington, North .
Orej, South
Grey, East
Orey, North
Norfolk, South...
Norfolk, North....
Brant, South
Brant, North
Waterioo, South..
Waterloo, North...
Elgin, Eant
Elgin, Woet
Oxford, South
Oxford, North
Middlesex, Eaat...
Middlesex, West...
Middlesex, North..
London, City
Perth, South
Perth, North
Huron, South
Huron, Centre
Huron, North. . . .
Bruce, South
Bruce, North
Territorial
BuperiiclMiii
acret.
Population.
Repr»-
•entation.
187L
188L
264,136
19,244
20,813
571,412
10,956
13,799
3,226,320
6,919
27,204
147,660
19,923
20,378
402,206
25,967
28,434
2,002
15,090
24,867
791
20,647
22,983
3,165
20,355
38,565
144,886
10,360
23,312
137,717
16,260
18,884
295,627
24,262
24,502
367,048
23,670
26,891
698,155
33,719
49,238
172,177
16,369
16,387
243,421
16,500
16,770
164,290
20,572
26,152
24,522
3,693
3,445
238,786
16,179
17,145
107,501
20,672
22,963
228,840
19,042
18,619
142,776
14,638
14,993
145,367
16,245
15,998
2,380
26,716
35,961
237,953
22,606
21,919
227,827
23,431
25,400
230,390
21,118
22,265
359,644
18,740
25,870
286,652
18,622
21,127
497,923
22,193
29,668
367,163
18,580
23,334
224,526
15,370
16,374
182,160
15,390
17,219
165,706
20,766
21,975
105,540
11,493
11,894
169,184
20,995
21,754
172,092
19,256
20,986
234,896
20,870
28,147
231,539
12,786
14,214
229,163
23,678
24,732
256,446
24,559
25,361
272,520
25,055
30,600
249,627
20,195
21,496
275,598
21,519
21,239
1,907
15,826
19,746
212,458
21,159
20,778
326,735
25,377
34,207
256,297
21,512
23,393
253,087
22,791
26,474
315,330
21,862
27,103
427,018
31,332
39,803
621,141
17,183
24,971
72
HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Population, &c — Continued.
Blectoial OtmicTS.
Bothwell
Lambion,
Kent....
IVHBCA » « » » I
Algoma..
Territorial
Superficies, Ip
ftcree.
379,006
610,671
412,019
450,394
27,606,ft()2
POPULATIOir.
1871.
Totals of Ontario
65,111,463
20,701
31,994
26,836
32,697
7,018
1,620,851
1881.
27,102
42,616
36,626
46,962
20,320
Repre-
■enutioo.
1,923,228
{Province of Manitoba,)
Selkirk
Provencher.
loBgar
Marquette.
Extension..
Totals of Manitoba
688,040
2,159,760
783,689
4,519,368
70,697,143
78,848,000
3,093
2,147
3,254
3,734
12,771
11,496
5,786
19,449
16,452
♦18,995 ! 65,964
88
1
1
1
1
(Province of British Columbia,)
New Westminster,
Cariboo
Yale
Victoria
Vancouver
Totals of British Colombia ,
114,602,400
62,982,400
30,710,400
10,240,1X)0
218,435,200
1,356
1,955
1,316
4,640
1,419
t36,247
I
16,417
7,650
9,200
7,301
9,991
49,459
1
1
1
2
1
The Territories.
1,705,761,280
56,446
Grand Totals of Canada.
2,221,059,407
3,635,024
4,324,810
206
* IncludinfT 6,767 Indlaiw.
t Including 26,661 IndUnf.
Population of Cities and Towns having over 5,000 inhabitants compared.
Namm.
Montreal.
Toronto...
Quebec..,
Halifax..
Hamilton,
Ottawa. . .
St. John.,
London...
PROvixcm.
Quebec
Ontario
Quebec ,
Nova Scotia..
Ontario
Ontario
N. Brunswick,
Ontario
Population.
1871.
107,226
66,092
59,699
29,682
26,716
21,545
28,806
15,826
1881.
140,747
86,416
62,446
36,100
36,961
27,412
26,127
19,746
iDcmae.
Decreaae.
33,522
30,323
2,747
6,618
9,246
6,867
2,678
3,920
THE DOULVION OF CANADA.
Population, &c. — Contintted.
VUM.
loenMa.
DMiMn.
1S71.
1881.
12,520
12,407
8,807
6,878
7,864
8,107
7,306
7,670
2,187
15,226
14,091
11,485
9,890
9,631
9,616
8,516
8,670
8,361
2,706
Cbariottetown
Guelph
St. CathuiDW.
Braatfotd
Prince Edward liland
Ontario
Ontario
2,678
3,012
1,767
1,609
Truw-Rivia«a
Oaebec
1,100
SS;;::::.:;v:.;.;:;:.;;';
Ot^tt^rA
naiH
HI8T0BT OF BRANT COUNTY.
Eeugions op the People — Continued.
F. Edward Island.
Nova Scotia.....
Naw Bnmawiok
Quebec
Ontario.
Manitoba.
British Colombia.
The Temtoriea. .
Grand ToUls .
P. Edward Island
Novn Scotia.
New Bninawick..
Quebec
Ontario
Manitoba.
British Columbia
The Territoriea. .
Grand TotalB..
,JS..
11,052
aO,2I4
34,302|
38,026
436,987! 101,605
582,963 103,872. 27,336
Cburcb Chorcb
In ot a
CuudL ScotlMd
2,150
2,136
1,034
140 375
610' 2,021 ._.
■ 1,213: 1,333 10,983
12 67 6
25,555 3,730 1,499
64 2,173
a' 5 437
S,680' 3,93o! 4,478
1,618
1,200
2,608
1 2,126 4,517 14,269
Birthplaces of the People.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA.
Birthplaces of the People. — Contimied.
76
Canada.
Other Brltiah PoMeadooa.
PBovnrcES.
Ontaria
Manitoba.
Britiili
Columbia.
TheTar-
ritoriei.
Newfoand-
land.
Ghannel
lalanda.
Other Pot-
■eedons.
Priocc Edwaid lalaiLcL
105
333
310
10,379
1,435,647
19,125
1,572
517
671
2,058
262
809
771
16
8
1
12
57
43
342
345
4
10
1
63
Nova ScotiA
New Bninswick
Quebec
i
33
62
18,020
24
1.450
6
3
19
42
25
32,175
5
1
2
48
• 168
6,422
14
51,785
460
131
339
Ontario
1,490
52
193
5
Manitoba
Britiah Columbia
The Territories
Grand totals of Canada
1,467,988
19,590
32.275
58,430
4,596
814
2,733
PROTINCES.
France.
Ger-
many.
ft
Italy.
9
36
22
231
378
23
78
777
Ruaeia
and
F^luid.
Spain
and Por-
tugal.
Sweden,
X. and
Den-
mark.
United
Sutes.
other
Coun-
triea.
At
Sea.
Not
given.
Prince Edward Island.
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick
Qaebec
15
222
63
2,239
1,549
81
193
27
14
254
203
1,023
23,270
220
344
2
10
6
231
444
5,651
32
1
23
14
50
103
1
23
11
114
444
358
852
121
170
6
609
3,004
5,108
19,415
45,454
1,752
2,295
116
11
166
52
545
1,298
771
4,611
1
8
45
23
30
28
270
200
666
Ontario
Manitoba
British ColambiA
The Territories
256
4
11
• • •
380
2,211
102
761
2,107
Grand totalsof Canada
4,389
25,328
6,376
215
2,076
77,753 7,456
6,334
The total population of the Dominion of Canada in 1881 will be found to be
4,324,810, nearly five millions, the amount of population with which the United
States Bepublic began its marvellous career. The number of immigrants
into Canada we find, by the Beport of the Minister of Agriculture for 1881, to
he 30,238 for that year. A valuable colony of the Quaker-like Bussian secta-
ries, the Mennonites, have settled in the North- West, and the attention of
English statesmen and philanthropists is being increasingly turned to Mani-
toban emigration as a preventive — it cannot be a remedy — ^for pauperism and
discontent
The churches of Canada have risen in numbers, and efficiency with the
general growth of the countiy. The historic Church of England, which had but
ot.e Canadian bishop fifty years ago, has now twenty or more colleges like
the Universities of Trinity, in Toronto, and of Lennoxville, in the Province of
Quebec. Her congregations have multiplied in every county ; her clergy have
no need of " Eeserves ;" she has not ^ven felt the withdrawal of the libeial
76 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
yearly subsidy given in former years by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel In Toronto the evangelical section of her communion have lately
built and endowed a second college, that of Wydiffe HalL The Boman Catholic
Church retains her ancient hold on the pious habitants of the Province of
Quebec ; within the last twenty years the Jesuits have raised in Montreal the
" Jesu/' one of the most beautiful churches on the continent, a building worthy
of the order and its glorious missionary traditions.
In Toronto, the Metropolitan Church is a monument of the impulse for good
communicated to Canadian Methodism by the ministry there of Mr. Morley
Punshon, Our Upper Canada Methodism, the pioneer church of the yet un-
settled wilderness, began by preaching in bams and backwoods log-huts ; it now
builds cathedrals for services remarkable for classical music and cultured
preaching. The other Protestant churches are pretty well balanced in numbers
and popi^arity. The census shows that the Boman Catholics number 1,791,982 ;
the Church of Canada Methodiste, 582,963 ; the Episcopal, 103,272 ; the Bible
Christian, 27,236 ; the Primitive, 25,680, and others undassed, 25,680 ; the
Church of England has 574,818. Of Pagans it appears there are still amongst
us 3,830. The church spire of one or other of the Protestant denominations
rises from every village, and now that the old leaven of uncharitableness, caused
by the Clergy Beserves controversy, has died away, the various divisions of
Protestant Christianity are learning to dwell together in unity.
It has been mentioned in the course of this histonr that the first territorial
division of Upper Canada was into four districts. These succeeded a number
of smaller districts, such as the Talbot District, a division which we find in
maps as late as 1838. But in referring to the Be vised Statutes of Upper
Canada, we find, for the year 1798, a division into counties for the most part
identical with those of the present day, although in some cases both names and
boundaries have since been changed. Thus we find it enacted '' that the
triangular tract of land heretofore called Townsend Gore be added to the town-
ship of Burford, and form part thereof." And again, " that the townships of
Burford, Norwich, Dereham, Oxford, Blandford, and Blenheim, do constitute
the county of Oxford." The next territorial division is a rearrangement of
these counties in the Statutes of 1849, wherein the present county of Brant
forms part of the county of Oxford.
Again, in the Statutes for 1849, the first mention of the County Brant is
made. It consisted then of six townships, Brantf ord, Burford, South Dumfries,
Onondaga, Oakland, Tuscarora, and of the towns of Brantford and Paris.
In estimating the intellectual progress of the Dominion, we must take into
account these main aspects of its evolution, the educational advance, journalism,
literature in its various forms, and the fine arts. As to education, some account
of its progress has been already given. Although the Jesuits, who were
esteemed t£e best educators of their day, did something, the Duke de Boche-
foucald could write, in 1787, that the Canadian who was able to write was a
phenomenon. In 1807 the first Education Act, passed in Upper Canada, estab-
lished grammar schools in each of the eight districts of the Province. The
history of the public school has been already givem The University of Toronto
was opened in 1847; Upper Canada College, which once did work that has now
passed to all the Collegiate Institutes, opened at the same time. In 1834 the
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 77
Wesleyans founded Victoria College, now one of the most flourishing of our
denominational colleges, under the able direction of Dr. Nelles. The Kirk of
Scotland opened Queen's College, Elingston, in 1841 ; the Presbyterian Church
of Canada, Knox College, Toronto, in 1844. Trinity College, Uhnrch of Eng*
land, was the outcome of the secularization of our Provincial University in
1849. The Baptists established the Woodstock Literary Institute in 1857 ; the
Methodists, Albert College, Belleville, in 1878 ; and the evangelical party in
the Church of England, the Western University at London, in 1878.
In Nova Scotia, King's College, at Windsor, goes back as far as 1788. Dal-
housie College at Halifax dates from 1820. Acadia College, in Horton, was
instituted by the Baptists in 1831. In 1843, the Wesleyan University of Sack-
ville was founded at Sackvllle, New Brunswick. In the census of 1881 the
following very gratifying summary of our educationad statistics is found: —
Total number of educational institutions in the Dominion, 13,000 ; number of
pupils in attendance during the year, 925,000 ; amount annually contributed
for purposes of education by the State and the people, $6,700,000.
A^ to joumfidism, some account has already been given of its early struggles
in Upper Canada, and of the influence exercised by Le Canadien in the Lower
Province. In looking over the files of the journals on both political sides,
preserved in the Parliament Library, Toronte, one is struck with the coarse per-
sonality, the frequent solecism, and the badness of the writing both in form
and matter. Begularly arranged, methodical news editing there is none. It is
witty in a Beform journal to call Lord Metcalfe " Old Squaretoes ;'' in a Tory
paper to speak of M. Lafontaine as " a rebel fattening for the gallows." We
have changed all that, it is to be hoped may truly be said, though there is still
far too much bitterness, and too little '' sweetness and light," in our best journal-
ism. The ablest editoriad writing we find in the Colonist (Tory), in Mackenzie's
Colonial Advocate, and Sir Francis Hincks' Examiner and Pilot At last in 1S44
appeared a really first-class newspaper, a title which no political partizanship
can withhold from the Olobe, In 1852 Mr. Beaty established the Leader, an
able Conservative journal. In 1857 the lamented McQee came to Canada, and
displayed his brilliant versatile telents in the columns of the Montreal New Era.
In 1867 the Conservatives of Upper Canada had for the first time the advantage
of being represented by a really first-class paper, the Toronto Mail. In illustrated
papers Canada is as yet poor, the only good one being the genial and witty
comic paper Grip^ edited by an artist who is also a poet and a humorous writer,
and who never sneers at religion or stoops to carrion.
As to literature, viewed distinctly from journalism. Lower Canada has pro-
duced nothing before the conquest, and but a scanty list of I'eally good original
works since, except the historic works of Le Moyne and Gameau. The latter
has given us, from a point of view very partial to the Catholics and the French,
the histoiy of the French Canadian from the earliest times. His hero is M.
Papineau, in whose favour damaging fact^s are a little too gently treated. In
fiction, the " Jean Bivaud " of M. Geru Lajore, and " Les Ancien Canadien " of
M. de Gaspe, are pleasing local tales. In poetry, a far greater success has been
won by M. Honore de Frechette, whose two volumes of lyrics, crowned by the
French Academy, have furnished a type of poetry unknown before even to the
rich literature of Frai:ce, by their presentation, in a graceful style, instinct
78 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
with local colouring and tradition, of the scenery of Canada. MM. Le May,
Gremazie and several others have also published some commendable poetry. D.
Larue and M. Ernest Gagrien have lately given us a valuable collection of the
chansons of the Lower Canadian peasants, many of which are peculiarly sweet
and piquant, and belong to a form of ballad, unique in itself, which ought not to
be 8dlowed to die out. Early in the history of Upper Canada we find mention
of bookstores and circulating libraries. In 1836 Mrs. Jameson, authoress of
''Legends of the Madonna," spent some time in Toronto ; the Stricklands, Judge
Haliburton and Mr. John Gait, are names more or less associated with our Eng-
lish-speaking community. The first experiment at a literary serial was the
Canadian Magazine, in 1823 ; but a far abler publication was the Canadian
Mojgazint^ in 1833.
For the last ten years a review of a very high class was edited by Mr. G.
Mercer Adam, and only discontinued a year ago. In science we can boast of
two writers of European reputation, Principal Dawson, of McGill College, and
Professor Daniel Wilson, now President of the University of Toronto. The
best poetry yet written in Canada has appeared in the columns of the Cana-
dian Monthly Review, and the works of Rate Seymour McLean and Miss
Machar, of Kingston, of Charles Roberts, of New Brunswick, and the dramas
of Charles Heavysiege, show that poetic power Is not wanting amongst us.
Of these names, by far the highest is that of Mr. Roberts, whose " Orion " is a
picture of Greek Ufe drawn with a strength of hand which no other writer in
Canada is capable of. Mr. Roberts has been for some years a leading contributor
to Sd^ibner. His " Brother Cuthbert " is a dramatic lyric of great power. In
the manipulation of new metrical combinations, and in wealth and force of
imagery, this poet has attained to a rare excellence. He always '* draws from
a full cask," and we feel inclined, like little Oliver Twist, to i^sk for " more."
The presence in this country of so original a thinker, and so brilliant a writer,
as Mr. Goldwin Smith, has given a powerful stimulus to literature in Toronto,
and his Bystander, published quarterly, gives us the comments of one of the
ablest of the writers the England of our day has produced, on the passing
events of our history. In miscellaneous literature we have, in a special de-
partment, Colonel Denison's work on cavalry, which gained a prize from the
Emperor of Russia. In biography Mr. Lind^ey's " Life of William Lyon Mac-
kenzie " is an interesting and vivid presentment of a remarkable career. Mr.
Fennings Taylor has written some readable biographies of Episcopal and other
worthies. The late Mr. Watson, of Toronto, has left in his " Constitutional
History of Canada," a work remarkable for its lucid style, and clear insight into
our constitutional history. Mrs. Moodie's '' Roughing it in the Bush " is a pic-
ture, valuable to the future historian, of the }^ardships of pioneer life in the
backwoods. Her style is graceful, and often displays much humour. Mr.
Alpheus Todd, who holds the position of Librarian to the Dominion Parliament
at Ottawa, has written a '^ History of Parliamentary Precedent and Constitu-
tional Usage," which has already been regarded as a classical authority in
England. '' The Canadian Portrait Gallery," by Mr. Dent, is a valuable and
pleasantly-written series of short biographies of our leading public men. " Pic-
turesque Canada," * published by the Art Publishing Co. of Toronto, is a work
* KoFE.— Several of the best artioleB in thii work were written by Dr. C. Pelbam Mnlvany. —
'tmcBS.
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 79
to the artistic merits of whidi it is impossible to give too high praise. Of the
fiteraiy part, those articles written by Principal Grant, Miss McLean and Mr.
6. Mercer Adam, are an honour to Canadian literature. The artist to whom
this work i& most indebted is Mr. O'Brien, President of the Canadian Aca-
demy, several of whose pictures, illustrating Canadian scenery, have been pur-
chased by Queen Victoria, and hung up in Windsor Castle and others of the
royal palaces. Princess Louise has herself some taste for art, and has given
encouragement to Canadian artists. The last two exhibitions of the Academy
held in Toronto show a great improvement in the number and ability of our
artists. Mr. Yemer, Mrt>. Schrieber, Mr. John Fraser, and Mr. Watson, with
many others, might be mentioned.
To return to literature. In the department of history we have a good and
original work on Canadian annals, " The Last Forty Tears in Canada," by
John Charles Dent. This is well written, often eloquent, and always, we
believe, reliable. Withrow's '' History " is a mere compilation ; McMullen's is
better, but having been written at Brockville, the writer had not su£Scient
access to original authorities and documents. *' The Scot in British North
America," by Mr. W. J. Kattray, is one of our best histoiical works. * A pleasing
historic monogram appeared lately, the *' Life and Speeches of the Hon. George
Brown." It is somewhat hastily put together, and does not give — what would
have been so useful to students of Canadian politics — a thorough analysis of
the conditions of the times in which George Brown and his newspaper fought
the battle ot Keform. While this portion of our work is preparing for press,
Mr. J. R Collins has given to our literature what we believe is sure to prove
the most brilliant and exhaustive of political biographies published in this
country. It has, like all great historical works, the interest of truth stranger
and more captivating than that of fiction. We must not close this brief sketch
of Canadian literature without giving a meed of well-earned praise to Mr. G.
Mercer Adam, editor for many years of the above-named Curiadian Monthly,
This gentleman, without hope of reward, has given all his time to the encour-
agement of our struggling literature. Neither of the party chiefs have helped
or thanked him. The same disregard of high literary excellence has been
shown by the Conservative party to Mr. R W. Phipps, who put into their
hands the talisman which gained them office, the "National Policy;" Mr.
Phipps is par eoccellence the pamphlet writer of Canada His command of ver-
nacular illustration and of telling and exhaustive invective, is unrivalled by
any writer in the " great party organs." Some of his letters have been known
to sell 300 extra copies of a small and impecunious local daily, to which Mr.
Phipps was generous enough to afford the too occasional aid of his pen. Harvey's
" Acadia " is an interesting monograph. We consider that all such local glean-
ings of incident and personal recollections, if not collected now, must soon be
lost by the death of the older generations, and most important materials for the
future historian thus pass into oblivion. From this point of view the " His-
tory of the County of Brant " may, we trust, be found useful. No pains have
been spared in gathering up the precious and yet perishable material, which
exists in the memories of the old, the records of churches and public institutions,
and personal observations of those who have been professionally or. otherwise
active in the country during the last fifty years.
PART II
INDIAN HISTORY.
publk: library
Aaron, caHox
Captain Joseph Brant
CAPT. JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA),
The Distinguished Mohawk Indian Chief. Sachem and W|rrior.
Parentage.
The birth and parentage of this celebrated Indian leader, whose career is a
part of the general history-of two great civilized nations, as well as an important
factor in the local history of the particular county which bears his name, is
involved in uncertainty.
His biographer (Stone), who wrote as late as 1865, thus alludes to the circum-
stance : " The Indians have no heralds' college in which the lineage of their
great men can be traced, or parish registers of marriages and births, by which
a son can ascertain his paternity. Ancestral glory and shame are therefore only
reflected darkly through the dim and imcertain twilight of tradition. By some
authors, Thayendanegea has been called a half-bre^ ; by others he has been
pronounced a Shawanese by parentage, and only a Mohawk by adoption."
He has also been mentioned as a son of Sir William Johnson ; Drake, the
well known writer of Indian biography, calls Brant an Orumdaga of the Mo^
hatpk tribe. Other writers have allowed him the honor of Mohawk blood,
but have denied that he was descended from a chief. /
During the year 1819, the Christian Becorder, then published at Kingston,
presented a brief account of the life and character of Brant. In that memoir it
was stated that he was bom on the banks of the Ohio, whither his parents
had emigrated from the Valley of the Mohawk, and where they are said to
have sojourned several years.
" His mother at length relwmed loith two children — Mary, who lived with Sir
JFilliam Johnson, and Josqph, the subject of this memoir. Nothing was known of
Brant's father among the Mohawks. Soon after the return of this family to
Ganajoharie, the mother married a respectable Indian called Carrihogo, or news-
carrier, whose Christian name was Burnet, or Bernard ; but by way of contraction
he went by the name of ' Brant'."
Hence it is argued that the lad who was to become the future war chief was
first known by the distinctive appellation of Brant*s Joseph, and in process of
time, by inversion, " Joseph Brant." *
** There is an approximation to the truth in this relation," says Stone, " and
it is in part sustained by the family tradition. The facts are these : The Six
* a&Utian Jiegitter, 1819, Vol. 1, No. 3, pabliahed at Kingston, and edited hr the Rev. Doctor*
afterwards the Hononrable and Venerable Arohdeaoon Straohan, of Toronto. Dr. Strachan wrote
the sketches npon information received from the Rev. Dr. Stewart, formerly a missionary in the
Mohawk VaUev.
6
86 HISTOBY OF BBANT COUNTY.
Nations have carried their arms far to the west and south
To the Ohio and Sandusky country they asserted a peremptory claim extending
to the right of soil, at least as far as Presqu*isle. From their associations in
that country, it had become usual among them, especially the Mohawks, to
make temporary removals to the west during the hunting seasons, and one or
more of those families would frequently remain abroad among the Miamis, the
Hurons, or the Wyandots, for a longer or shorter period as they chose. One
of the consequences of this intercommunication was the numerous family alliances
existing between the Six Nations and others at the west, the Wyandots in par-
ticular. It was while his parents were abroad upon one of those excursions^ that
Thayendanegea was bom, in the year 1742, on the banks of the Ohio.
The home of his family was at the Cauajoharie Castle, the central of the
three castles of the Mohawks, in their native valley. His father's name was
Tehowaghwengaraghkwin, a full-blooded Mohawk of the Wolf Tribe. Thayen-
danegea was very young when his father died. Hi» mother married a second
time to a Mohawk ; and the family tradition at present is, that the name of
Brant was acquired in the manner assumed by the publication already cited
There is reason to doubt the accuracy of this tradition, however, since it is be-
lieved that there was an Indian family of some consequence and extent bearing
the English name of Brant. Indeed, from the extracts from the recently dis-
covered manuscripts of Sir William Johnson, it may be questioned whether
Tehowt^hwengaraghkwin and an old chief, sometimes call^ by Sir William,
Brant, and at others Nickus Brant, were not one and the same person. The denial
that he was a born chief is likewise believed to be incorrect It is very true that
among the Six Nations chieftainship was not necessarily obtained by inheritance;
but in regard to Thayendanegea there is no doubt that he was of royal blood."
" The London Magazine for July, 1776, contains a sketch of him, probably
furnished by Boswell, with whom he was intimate during his first visit to
England, in 1775-6. In that account it is afiBbrmed as a fact without question
that he was the grandson of one of the five sachems who visited England in 1710,
during the reign of Queen Anne.
" In the life of the first President Wheelock, by the Rev. Messrs. McClure
and Parish, it is asserted that the father of Joseph Brant was Sachem of the
Mohawks after the death of the famous ELing Heudrick."
Much other evidence might be added to support the generally accepted state-
ment of a recent local writer, to the following effect :
" Thayendanegea, or Joseph Brant, as he was called in English, according to
tradition was bom on the banks of the ' Belle/ or Beautiful River, according to
the French, or ' Oh-he-oh,' according to the Indian vocabulary, about the year
1742.
** He was the youngest son of a distinguished Mohawk chief, mentioned in
various records and traditions, under the English or German name of ' Nickus
Brant/ between whom and Sir William Johnson it is said a close intimacy
subsisted."
Boyhood.
*' Of the early youth of Joseph Brant there are no accounts, other than that
he was very young when first upon the war-path."
INDIAN HISTORY. 87
'* Three sons of * Nickus Brant ' accompanied the expedition against Crown
Point in 1755, which was commanded by Gen. William Johnson. Joseph was
the yonnger of the three, and could not have been over 13 or 14 years of age at
that time. This expedition was successful, and procjired for Sir Wm. Johnson
his title of Baronet, and a gratuity of five thousand pounds from the King."
The Mohawks in this engagement were led by their celebrated king, the
brave old Hendrick, who was slain.
Education.
That Thayendanegea was to a certain extent benefited by the Christian-
izing and civilizing efiTorts of the influential representatives of the royal
authority with whom he was associated, is substantiated by every unprejudiced
source from which information can be drawn.
That Sir William Johnson was deeply interested in the success of the
philanthropic efforts which were then being made in behalf of the Indians,
is sufl&ciently illustrated by the following letter, which has been preserved
among the papers of that gallant officer :
" Fort Johnson, Nov. 17th, 1761.
'* Rev. Sib, — ^Yours of the second instant I had the pleasure of receiving by
the hands of Mr. Kirkland. I am pleased to find the lads I sent have merited
your good opinion of them. I have given it in charge to Joseph (Brant) to
speak in my name to any good boys he may see, and encourage them to
accept the generous offer now made them, which he promises to do, and return
as soon as possible. I will, on return of the Indians from hunting, advise
them to send as many as is required. I expect they will return, and hope
they will make such progress in the English language and their learning, as
may prove to your satisfaction and the benefit of those, who are really much
to be pitied. My absence these four months has prevented my design of en-
couraging some more lads going to you, and since my return, which is but
lately, I have not had an opportunity of seeing old or young, being all on
&eir hunt. When they come back I shall talk with and advise their parents
to embrace this favourable opportunity of having their children instructed, and
doubt not of their readiness to lay hold of so kind and charitable an offer.
" Mr. Kirkland's intention of learning the Mohawk language I most approve
of, as after acquiring it he could be of vast service to them as a clergyman,
which they much want and are desirous of having.
" The present laudable design of instructing a number of Indian boys will,
I doubt not, when more known, lead several gentlemen to contribute towards
it, and enable you thereby to increase the number of scholars, with whom I
shall not be backward to contribute my mite.
" I wish you aU success in this undertaking, and am with truth and sin-
cerity,
"Eev. Sir,
" Tour most humble servant,
"Wm. Johnson."
88 HISTOBT OF BKANT COUMTY.
" The exertions of Sir William Johnson lo improve the moral and social con-
dition of bis Mohawk neighbours were not the least of his praiseworthy labours
amonf; that brave and chivalrous people Having aided in the biulding of
churches, and locating miasionaries among them, at uie request of the Rev. Mr.
Kirkland and others he selected a number of young Mohawks, and caused them
to be sent to the Moor Charity School at Lebanon, Connecticut, under the
immediate direction of the Bev. Doctor Eleazer Wheelock, afterwards President
of Dartmouth College, of which, by its transfer, the Moor school became the
foundation.*
" Among the Indian youths thus selected was young Thayendan^ea. The
precise year in which he was placed in. charge of Doctor Wheelock cannot now
be ascertained. The school was opened for the reception of Indian pupils,
avowedly as an Indian missionary school, in 1748 ; the first Indian scholar,
Samson Occnm, having been received into it five years before."
The various writers who have treated of the deeds and character of Captain
Brant, differ widely as to his scholastic attainments, and the length of time
which he passed at (he Mooi school One authority (Dr. Stewart) says jhe
made but little proficiency in his studies. His chi^ bic^rapher. Stone, after
what appears to nave been a thorough consideration of all the available docu-
mentary and traditional evidence, thus concludes :
' " The fact, however, that Charles Jeffrey Smith, a missionary to the Mohawks,
took Thayendanegea as an interpreter in the year 1762, and gave him an excellent
character, presents a much more favourable idea of his progress in learning."
From McClure's " Life of Wheelock," the following extract is made, as bearing
upon this point : "Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian ASaira in
Noitfa America, was very friendly to the design of Mr. Wheelock, and at his
request sent several boys of the Mohawks to be instructed. One of these was
the since celebrated Joseph Brant, who, afier receiving his educaiion, was par-
ticnlarly noticed by Sir William Johnson, and employed by him in public
business," etc
Among the Indian youths who accompanied Thayendanegea to the Moor
school were several Mohawks and two Delawares, the Utter having preceded the
others some little time. One member of this party was a half-breed named Wil-
liam, who was supposed to have been a son of Brant's friend and patron.
" " ' ■ " ' ' ' <1," says Stone, " to receive the honours of the
others, impatient of the restraints of school,
)f game than of literary honours, returned te
re. ThayendaTiegea pi-obably left the school
i of the Indian Charity School," published
Braut, a Mohawk Indian of a family of
icated by Mr. Wheelock, and was so well
Jeffrey Smith took him for his interpreter
be Mohawks, now three years ago. Bat the
id thth the philuithropic daaigii of edacKting loduiD
ic, bot with iudiSereDt mcceu, w f ar m the imgiiiB]
nd principtUly upported by the pfttrankge of i^tgtith
INDIAN HISTORY. 89
war breakiiig out at that time between the back Indiana and the English, Mr.
Smith was obliged to return ; but Joseph tarried and went out with a company
ixgainst the Indians. He behaved so much like the Christian and the soldier
that he gained great esteem. He now lives in a decent manner, and endeavours
to teach his poor brethren the things of God, in which his own heart seems
much engaged. His house is an asylum for the missionaries in that wilderness."
It is not stated which particular campaign it was that the young warrior was
engaged in at the time, but a passage contained in a letter from Sir William
Johnson to Dr. Wheelock, and dated April 25, 1764, affords a clue to the desired
information : " J is just returned from an expedition against the enemy,"
etc., etc It was therefore early in the spring of 1764 that he returned from
the war-path ; this makes it probable that the war was none other than that
i^nst the great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who in 1763 attempted te dispossess
the English of the country of the lakes.
That Brant was possessed of at least a fair degree of culture is established
beyond doubt The English historian. Weld, in his " Travels through the States
of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the
years 1795, 1796 and 1797," • has the following notice of Capt. Brant :
" Brant, at a very early age, was sent to a college in New England, where,
being possessed of a good capacity, he soon made very considerable progress in
the Greek and Latin languages.
"Uncommon pains were taken to instil into his mind the truths of the
GospeL He professed himself to be a warm admirer of the principles of
Christianity ; and, in hopes of being able to convert his nation, on returning to
them he absolutely translated the Gospel of St Matthew into the Mohawk
language ; he also translated the established ' Form of Prayer' of the Church of
England.
** Whenever the affairs of his nation shall permit him to do so, Brandt declares
it to be his intention to sit down to the study <3f the Greek language, of which
he professes himself a great admirer, and to translate from the original into the
Mohawk language more of the New Testament."
Many other proofs of his ability might be added to those already ^ven, but
enough has been produced to disprove the charge of illiteracy or the lack of
culture.
Brant as a Warrior.
Mention has already been made of his having been a participant in the expe-
dition against Crown Point, in the year 1755, when but thirteen years of age.
It is reported that in relating the particulars of this engagement to Dr.
Stewart, the youthful warrior acknowledged that this being the first action at
which he was present, he was seized with such a tremor when the firing began,
that he was obliged to take hold of a small sapling to steady himself; but that
after the discharge of a few volleys he recovered the use of his limbs and the^
composure of his mind, so as to support the character of a brave man, of which
he was exceedjj^gly ambitious.
His next experience appears to have been with the expedition against Niagara
in 1 759. This important post was then in possession of the Frencn. The move*
90 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
ment was organized under the command of Gen Prideaux^ and consisted of a
little over two thousand men, who left Oswego for Niagara on the 1st of Sep-
tember, 1759.
Sir William Johnson joined the expedition with about six hundred warriors
of the Six Nations. This number was increased to about one thousand before
reaching the vicinity of the fort. The youthful warrior accompanied Sir
William in this expedition* The French had drawn all their available forces of
eveiy description from their western posts for the defence of Niagara.
A large detachment arrived in the vicinity during the siege, consisting of
both French and Indians. These Ihdians were friends and dlies of the Six
Nations. A parley between the Indians' was held, the western Indians]declaring
they did not come to fight their brethren of the Six Nations, but the English.
The result was they detached themselves and joined their brethren. In the
early patt of the siege General Prideaux was killed by the accidental discharge
of a '' cohom,'' and Uie command devolved upon Sir William Johnson. Upon
the withdrawal of the western Indians, the French were attacked, and all
either killed, taken prisoners, or put to flight.
Upon learning the fate of this reinforcement, the French commandant sur*
rendered the fort, himself, and all his forces prisoners of war.*
His connection with the Pontiac war has been mentioned as having taken
place in 1763-4. It was probably his third venture upon the uncertain field of
combat.
In what particular battles he was engaged does not appear ; but he was in
the war, and his courageous and enterprising spirit offered the best evidence
that he was promptly on hand, regardless of obstructions and danger. From
all accounts now at hand, it appears that the Pontiac war was the last import-
ant campaign in which Brant participated, until the outbreak of those pre-
monitory mutterings, which terminated in open rebellion by a portion of the
American colonies.
By reference to that portion of this sketch which treats of his social and
domestic relations, it will be seen that this period of his career was exceedingly
tranquil
That he was, by his associations with Sir William Johnson, most thoroughly
tutored in the details of the relation which his people bore to both the loyal
and disloyal elements of the English dependencies in this country, is certainly
established by what transpired later.
Chieftainship.
"About this time" (1771), says one authority, "Brant was made Principal
War Chief of the Oonfederacy."f Stone's language is altogether inferential,
but as his statements appear to be the foundation of all that has been written
since the publication of his work, they are given entire :
" Thayendanegea had now been advanced to the situation of Principal War
Chief of the Confederacy. (I am aware that the dignity of Principal Chief has
* Mr, Stone expresses the opinion that Brant entered the " Moor Charity School " soon afte'
his retam from this Niagara campaign,
t Mrs. Oarey, Brantford, 1872.
INDIAN HISTORY. 91
been denied to Captain Brant by several writers, and expressly by Rev. Mr*
Stewart, who says he was not a war chief by birth, and not so often in
command as has been supposed. It will be seen, however, from the speech of
a Seneca chief that Thayendanegea vxts the head chief of the Six Nations,
Mr. Stewart to the contrary notwithstanding). This important office was
uniformly filled by a warrior selected from the Mohawks. How or in what
manner Brant arrived at that dignity history does not inform us. Hendrick,
the last of the Mohawk chiefs, who bore the title of ' King,' fell at Lake
George twenty years before. He was succeeded by Little Abraham, who has
been designated by some writers as a brother of Hendrick, but whether he was
or not, he was uniformly friendly to the colonists, and refused to leave the
valley with Thayendanegea and the majority of the nation who accompanied
Guy Johnson in his flight It is not improbable that Brant assumed the
superior chieftaincy from the force of circumstances.
"From certain letters of Sir William Johnson to Arthur Lee, it is learned that
the sachems of each tribe of the Six Nations were usually chosen in a public
assembly of the chiefs and warriors, whenever a vacancy happened by death, or
otherwise. They were selected from among the oldest warriors for their sense
and bravery, and approved of by the whole tribe. Military services were the
chief recommendations to this rank, but in some instances a kind of inheritance
was recognized.
" We have seen that Thayendanegea was descended from a family of chiefs,
and his birth may have coutributed to this elevation. His family and official
connection with Johnson, whose name was so potent with the Indians, without
doubt facilitated his advancement
" The inquiry is, however, of little importance. The fact that he had now
become the chief sachem is unquestionable, and from this point he becomes a
principal personage in the liistory of the English-speaking people of America.
'' He was ordinarily called by his other name of Joseph Brant, or ' Captain
Brant' — the title of 'captain' being the highest military distinction known to
the Indians; and that, moreover, being the rank conferred upon him in the
army of the Crown."
In much of his correspondence, when wishing to be formal, and when writing
to distinguished men, he was accustomed to write his name " Joseph Brant —
Thayendanegea^ the latter being his legitimate Indian name.
When Col. Guy Johnson evacuated the Mohawk Valley, and moved west-
wardly to Ontario, thence to Oswego, and later to Montreal, he was accom-
panied by Brant, and a portion at least of the Mohawk warriors.
One account contains the following : *' Colonel Johnson arrived in Mont-
real July 14th, 1775, accompanied by Joseph Brant with two hundred and
twenty Indians, by way of Lake Ontario, expecting soon to organize a force
sufficient to return and take possession of the homes and property he and his
retainers had left behind. But failing in these endeavours, and finding his
official standing and powers were interfered with to some extent by the
appointment of Major Campbell as Indian A^ent for Canada, Colonel Johnson
decided to go to England to get the question of his powers and jurisdiction
settled." At Montreal he appears to have met Generals Carleton and Haldi-
mandy who courted the services of himself and follow<^^, and soon induced
92 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
ihem to join the standard of the King. '' For the prosecution of a border
warfare, the officers of the Crown could scarcely have engaged a more valua-
ble auxiliary."
On the 11th of November, 1775, Colonel Johnson sailed from Quebec on a
visit to England ; lie was accompanied by Joseph Brant and a Mohawk war
chief, nam^ Oteroughyanente. Brant was much noticed and courted in
London, and made a speech before Lord George Germain, setting forth the
grievances of the Six Nations in general, and of the Mohawks, his own
nation, in particular; to which Lord Germain made a brief reply. This
speech, which is the first of Brant's we have on record, seems to have been
delivered in London, March, 1776.
It is not known whether the chief visited the Indian country of the Six
Nations during the summer previous to his journey to the English capital, in
company with Colonel Johnson. The precise object of that journey is also
enshrouded in uncertainty; many speculations have been indulged in by
different writers concerning the matter, but none have been able to arrive at
any important conclusion. That he went to England is, however, beyond
cavil.
There are several incidents recorded, here and there, in connection with this
first London sojourn, which illustrate the character of the brave old chief ;
and as some of these seem to be in order here, thev are introduced without
further explanation.
" He had but little of the savage ferocity of his people in his countenance,
and when, as he ordinarily did, he wore the European dress, there was nothing
besides his colour to mark wherein he differed from other men. Upon his first
arrival in London, he was conducted to the inn called ' The Swan with Two
Necka' Other lodgings were soon provided which were more suitable to his
rank as an Indian king ; but he said the people of the inn had treated him
with so much kindness, that he preferred to remain there during his stay in
London, and he accordingly did so."
Although he was dressed in the European habit, he was not unprovided
with a well selected wardrobe of Indian costumes, and he always appeared at
Court, and upon occasions of ceremony, in the dress of his own nation.
The tomahawk worn by him in London was a very beautiful article,
polished to the highest degree ; upon it was engraved the first letter of his
Christian name, with his Mohawk appellation, thus : *' J. Thayendanegea."
It was during this visit that he procured a gold finger-ring, with his full
name engraved thereon. This ring he wore until his death. It was kept as a
precious relic by his widow for four years, when it wa3 lost. Strange as it
may seem, however, during the summer of 1836 the identical ring was found
in a ploughed field near Wellington Square. The venerable Indian Queen
was at that time upon a visit to her daughter; the accomplished wife of
Colonel Kerr. As may well besupposed, the a^d widow was overjoyed at the
unexpected recovery of the memento, after its having been lost for twenty-^ix
years.
Brant did not remain in England many months, but in company with Cap-
tain Tice, who had been a member of the party during its entire journey, he
sailed for America in the spring of 1776.
INDIAN HISTORY. 93
There is much confusion among the statements of various writers concern-
ing the date of this event. May and July are both given as the time of his
arrival, but as he is known to have been in the battle of the Cedars, above
Montreal, which was fought in that same month, it is altogether probable that
he arrived during the end of March or early part of April.
He was cautiously and privately landed somewhere in the neighbourhood of
New York harbour, whence he performed a very hazardous journey to Canada,
havinfr^ of course, to steal his way through an enemy's country until he could
hide himself in the forests beyond Albany.
During his stay in the British capital, the question of his attitude towards
the rebeUious colonies was effectually settled; ne pledged himself most heartily
to the cause of the King, and returned to his native forests to execute the re-
quirements of that pledge.
In a letter to Sir Evan Nepean, which was written after the peace of 1783,
Brant said : " When I joined the English forces in the beginning of the war it
was purely on account of my forefathers' engagements with the King. I
always looked upon these engagements, or covenants, between the King and
the Indian people as a sacred thing, therefore I was not to be frightened by
the threats of uie rebels at that time. I assure you I had no other view in it,
and this was my real cause from the beginning."
The battle of the Cedars was the result of a movement by General
Carleton tO dislodge the Americans from a point of land extending far out
into the St Lawrence Hiver, about forty miles above Montreal.
The British commander had a force of six or seven hundred men, the
greater part of which were Indians under the leadership of Thayendanegea.
This affair terminated most successfully for the British, by the surrender of
Major Sherboume, on the 20th of May, 1776.
The name of Captain Brant4oes not appear in any of the books in con-
nection with this affair at the Cedars, but there is positive evidence that he
was not only there, but that he exerted himself, after the surrender of Major
Sherbourne, to control the Indians and prevent the massacre of the prisobers.
The reader is referred to the story of Captain McKinstry, in another part of
this sketch, for the particulars of an important event in the career of Captain
Brant
It was not supposed that any considerable numbers of the Six Nations took
part in the battie of the Cedars other than the Mohawks, and their kindred
tribe, the CaughnawagaSt or, as the latter tribe chose to call themselves, the
Seven Nations of Canada.
Among the papers preserved in the family of Colonel afterwards (General
Herkimer, is a speech from the Oneida chiefs to Colonel Elmore, who at rtie
commencement of the year 1777 was in command of Fort Schuyler. «
This document announces the final extinguishment of the great council fire
of the Six Nations, at Onondaga, New York. As the most central of all the
tribes of the Confederacy, their castle had been the assembly ground for all
general councils from time immemorial, and here, according to their own figur-
ative language, the council fire was ever kept burning.
* The letter u too long to imert in thif work; the reader ia referred to Stone's ** life of
Brant," Vol. !«, p. 176.
94 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The cause of this abandonment of their time-honoured council plaoe is wrapt
in much uncertainty, but is supposed by those who have investigated closely to
have been the extensive prevalence of small-pox, or other pestilential disorder.
The event is mentioned for the purpose of marking an important occurrence
in connection with the life of Brant, and with the history of the Six Nations,
as it was the occasion of their final exit, as a national body, from the council
grounds of their ancestors.
Neither tradition nor history furnishes any account of Thayendanegea's
movements until the spring of 1777, when he appeared among the Indians of
the Mohawk River country, having separated from Colonel Guy Johnson, with
whom he had had some difficulty. He penetrated the country as far south as
the northern settlements of the Susquehanna Itiver, in Pennsylvania, and was
undoubtedly active in his endeavours to unite the various Indian factions in
support of the royal cause.
The presence of the crafty chieftain did not improve the pacific disposition
of the natives, nor diminish the fears of the scattered and unprotected settlers
of that neighbourhood.
In June, 1777, he, with seventy or eighty warriors, appeared at Unadilla,
and requested an interview with the principal jnen and militia officers of the
settlement. He stated that the object of his visit was to procure provisions, of
which his people were greatly in want, and if these could not be obtained by
peaceable means he would take what he required by force. The visitr continued
two days, during which time the Indians were weU supplied with provisions,
and on their departure they were permitted to take away some live cattle and
sheep.
The Indian forces of Captain Brant continued to increase, and the anxiety
of the whites became correspondingly greater. Greneral Herkimer determine
to obtain an interview with Brant, for the purpose of at least ascertaining de-
finitely the temper of the Indians in regard to the issues of the period. For
this purpose Herkimer dispatched a messenger to Brant, with an invitation to a
mutual conference, to be held at or near Unadilla.
There has been much speculation in regard to the real object of General
Herkimer's call for this meeting. The different accounts of the affair which
have been published from time to time tend rather to confuse than enlighten the
historian of to-day. The following is from the ** History of Schoharie County : "
" It appears that in July, 1777, Joseph Brant had then, with some eighty
warriors, commenced his marauding enterprises on the settlements at Unadilla,
by appropriaUng their cattle, sheep and swine to his own benefit* To obtain
satisfaction for those cattle, and if possible to get the Indians to remain neutral in
the approaching contest^ General Herkimer, in the latter part of June, with three
bundled and eighty of the Tryon County Militia, proceeded to Unadilla (an
Indian settlement on the Susquehanna Biver), to hold an interview with Brant
That celebrated chief, then at Oquago, was sent for by Gen. Herkimer, and ar-
rived on the 27th, after the Americans had been there about eight days waitiuj^.
" Col. John Harper, who attended Gen. Herkimer at this time, made an affi-
davit on the 16th of July following the interview, showing the principal griev-
* This is probably am error, as the cattle were given to the Indians, as previously stated.
INDIAN HI8T0BY. 95
ances of which the Indians complained, as also the fact that they were in
covenant with the King, whose belts were yet lodged with them, and whose
service ihey intended to enter.
** The instrument further testified that Brant, instead of returning to Oswego,
as he had informed Gren. Herkimer was his intention, had remained in the neigh-
bourhood on the withdrawal of the American Militia, and was proposing to
destroy the frontier settlements.
** The following, relating to the interview between Gen. Herkimer and Brant,
is obtained from the venerable Joseph Wagner, of Fort Plain. He states that
at the first meeting of Gren. Herkimer with Brant, the latter was attended by
three other chiefs — ^William Johnson,, a son of Sir William Johnson by Molly
Brant, which son was killed at the battle of Oriskany the same year ; But, a
smart looking fellow, with curly hair, supposed to be part Indian and part
Negro ; and a short dark-skinned Indian.
"The four were encircled by a body-guard of some twenty noble looking
warriors. When in his presence Brant rather haughtily asked Gen. Herkimer
the object of his visit, which was readily made known. But seeing so many
attendants, the chief suspected the interview was sought for another purpose.
" Said Brant to Gen. Herkimer, ' I have five hundred warriors at my com-
mand, and can in an instant destroy you and your party ; but we are old
neighbours and friends, and I will not do it' Col. Cox, a young officer who
accompanied Gen. Herkimer, exchanged several sarcastic remarks with Brant,
which served not a little to irritate him and his followers. The two had a
quarrel a few years previous about lands around the upper Indian castle. Pro-
voked to anger. Brant asked Cox if he was not the ' son-in-law of old George
Clock ? ' ' Yes,' replied Cox in a tone of malignity, ' and what is that to you,
you d — d Indian ? '
" At the close of this dialogue. Brant's guard ran ott to their camp firing
several guns and making the hills echo back their savage yells. Gren. Herkimer
assured Brant that he intended his visit for one of a pacific character, and urged
him to interpose to prevent anything of a hostile nature. A word from Braut
hushed the tumult of passion, which a moment before threatened serious con-
sequences. The parties, however, were too much excited to proceed with the
business which had convened them. Brant, addressing Gten. Herkimer, said, * It
is needless to multiply words at this time ; I will meet you here at precisely
nine o'clock to-morrow morning.' The parties then separated to occupy their
former position in camp. They again met on the 28th of June. Brant was the
first to speak. ' Gen. Herkimer,' said he, ' I now fully comprehend the object
of your visit ; but you are too late ; I am engaged to serve the King. We are
old Mends, and I can do no less than to let you return unmolested, although
you are in my power.' After a little more conversation of a friendly nature,
the parties agreed to separate amicably. The conference ended, Gen. Herkimer
presented to Brant seven or eight &t cattle that had just arrived, owing to
obstructions on the outlet of Otsego Lake, down which stream they were driven
or transported. For three days before the arrival of the cattle the Americans
were on short aUowance. It is said that at this second interview of Brant with
Gen. Herkimer, the latter had taken the precaution to privately select four
reliable men, in case any symptoms of treachery should be exhibited, to shoot
96 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
down Brant and his chiefs at a given signal, but no occasion to execute these
precautionary measures occurred."
The conference being ended, Brant turned proudly away and buried himself
in the forest " It was early in July, and the morning was clear and beautiful
But the war-whoop had scarcely died away before the heavens became black,
and a violent thunder-storm obliged each party to seek the nearest shelter."
This was the last conference held with the hostile Mohawks. Brant very
soon drew off his warriors from the Susquehanna and united them to the forces
of Colonel John Butler and Sir John Johnson, who were concentrating the
Loyalists and refugees at Oswego. It was about this time that the officers of
' the British Indian Department summoned a general council of the Six Nations,
to be held at that place. It is probable that Brant arrived at this post with
his warriors for that occasion.
This council was an important one in the affairs of America, as it terminated
in the complete aUiance of the greater portion of the Six Nations with the
British forces. At the conclusion of the proceedings the Indians were pre-
sented with clothing, arms, ammunition, cooking utensils, etc.; some of the brass
kettles which were among the gifts of that day are said to be in existence
among the descendants of the Indians at the present time.
It is now generally conceded among students of American history that
Captain Brant's first " raid " upon any of the New York settlements was made
in the month of May previous to his interview with Greneral Herkimer, which,
as has been stated, took place in July ; this fact was not established with any
degree of certainty until after the close of the Revolutionary War. The affair
referred to was the waylaying of Lieutenant Wormwood and Peter Sitz, near
Cherry Valley.
" The next we hear of Brant is at the head of three hundred warriors at Os-
wego, 1777, to join the expedition of Gen. St. Leger against Fort Stanwix. The
Indians under Brant met with a severe loss in an engagement, and on their way
home committed some depredations upon the Oneidas, whom they considered
rebels for their refusal to join the expedition. In retaliation, the Oneidas plun-
dered Brant's sister, ' Molly Brant,' who resided with her family at the Upper
Mohawk Town, together with others of the Mohawks who accompanied Brant
in this expedition.
" Molly Brant and her family fled to the Onondagas, the council place of
the Six Nations, and laid her grievances before that body. The information
given to Gren. St. Leger of the approach of the reinforcements of the rebels
under Gen. Herkimer, was through the instrumentality of Molly Brant, and
led to the surprise and almost defeat of the entire party under Gen. Herkimer.
Capt. Brant, with a strong force of Indians, with true Indian sagacity, formed an
ambuscade in a position admirably fitted for the purpose. The whole rebel army,
with the exception of the rear guard, fell into the trap, and would have been
destroyed had not a severe storm of thunder, lightning and rain, put a stop to
the work of death." This engagement was none other than the historically
famous battle of Onskany, which was one of the most bloody of all the strug-
gles of the Canadian frontier.
The whole Indian force was led by Thayendanegea in person, "the Great Cap-
tain of the Six Nations," as he was then called ; and as the Cayugas had now
INDIAN HISTORY. 97
joined the Mohawks in alliance with the anns of England, while the Onon-
dagas also were practically a^nst the Provincials, although professing a doabtful
policy, he must have had a lai^e force in the field.
Of the Senecas alone thirty-six were killed and a great number wounded.
Captain Brant was accustomed, long years afterward, to speak of the sufferings
of his ** poor Mohawks " in the battle of Oriskany.
Among the spoils captured by the American troops was the baggage of Sir
John Johnson, with all his papers, consisting of memoranda, journals, orderly
books, coirespondenceretc. These papers have been an authentic and fruitful
source of information to the historian and biographer since then.
The victory at Oriskany was claimed by both British and Provincials ; in fact,
the issue was of such a peculiar character, that neither combatant had gained
anjrthing decisive, while each had lost heavily, in men and materials.
The military operations of 1777 closed with the British army in winter
quarters at Philadelphia, and the Americans at Valley Forge.
Early in 1778, the American Congress made another strenuous effort to con-
ciliate the Indians of the Six Nations, or such of them as had thus far claimed
to be neutral ; the scheme failed, and was never again attempted during the
Revolutionary War.
About the same time, various symptoms of change were perceptible among
the Indians of the Mohawk Valley, and such other tribes as were affiliated with
them ; the Indians of the remote west were manifesting a disposition to unite
with the nations already aUied with the British forces against the Provincials.
The master spirit of these combinations and movements was Captain Brant,
whose winter quarters were at the central and convenient point of Niagara. Sir
John Johnston, Colonels Glaus and Butler, and their co-workers, were active in
their preparations for an early and forward movement from Niagara, while
Colonel Hamilton, who commanded the British post, at Detroit, was equally
energetic in the same work in his own department.
Omitting many interesting particulars of the period under consideration,
which have no direct connection with the career of Brant, we find him at the
opening of the season for active operations, in 1778, at his former haunts on the
Susquehanna, below Unadilla. He soon proved himself a dreaded partisan ; no
matter what were the difficulties or distances, if a blow could b» struck to any
advantage, Thayendanegea was sure to be there.
Frequent were the instances in which individuals, and indeed whole families,
in the outskirts of the settlements disappeared, without any knowledge on the
part of those who were left that an enemy bad been near them. '* The smoking
mins of their dwellings, and the charred bones of the dead, together with the
slaughtered carcasses of the domestic animals, were the only testimonies of the
course of the catastrophe, until the return of an escaped captive, or the rescue
of a prisoner, furnished more definite information."
There is no good evidence that Brant was personally a participator in secret
murders, or attacks upon isolated individuals or families.
In support of the foregoing opinion concerning Brant, the subjoined inci-
dent, which happened in the summer of 1778, is given. A lad in Schoharie
County, named William McKown, while engaged in raking hay alone in a field,
happening to turn around, perceived an Indian very near him. Startled at liLs
98 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
perilous situation, he raised his rake for defence, but his fears were dissipated
by the savage, who said, " Do not be afraid, young man, I shall not hurt you,"
He then inquired for the house of a Loyalist named Foster. The lad gave him
the proper direction, and asked the Indian if he knew Mr. Foster. '* I am par-
tially acquainted with him, having once seen him at the Half-way Creek," was
the reply. The Indian then inquired the lad's name, and having been informed,
he added, " Tou are a son of Captain McKown, who lives in the north-east part
of the town, I suppose. I know your father very well, he lives neighbour to
Captain McEean." Emboldened by the familiar discourse of the Indian, the boy
ventured in turn to ask his name. Hesitating for a moment, the unwelcome
visitor replied, ** My name is Bt'ant*' " What ! Captain Brant ?" demanded the
youth. " No, I am a cousin of his," was the rejoinder, but accompanied by a
smile and a look that plainly disclosed the transparent deception. It was none
other than the terrible Thayendanegea.
The first movement of Brant in the spring of 1778 was upon the settlement
at Springfield, ^a town at the head of Otsego Lake, lying directly west of
Cherry Valley, and about ten miles distant. Those of the men who did not fly
were taken prisoners. The chieftain then burnt the entire settlement, with the
exception of a single house, into which he collected all the women and chil-
dren, and left them uninjured.
It was reported in June that Brant was fortifying his post near Unadilla,
and Captain McEean, with a small patrol, was sent to reconnoitre, but was
obliged to return without making any important observations. During the jour-
ney McEean wrote a letter to Brant upbraiding him for tfie predatory system
of warfare in which he was engaged, and challenging him to single combat, or
to meet him with an equal amount of men and have a pitched battle, adding
that if he would come to Cherry Valley they would change him frojp a " Brant "
to a ** goose." This missive was fastened to a stick and placed in an Indian path.
No modem post office could have transmitted the letter with greater speed or
safety ; the '' contents were noted " by Brant, and lie resolved to fight the
^ rebels " as well as he could.
Wyoming.
Of all the names which grace the record of events upon this side of the
Atlantic, none are perhaps more familiar to the readers of English literature
than this synonym of all that is bloody in war or beautiful in peace ; it has
been the subject of picture, song and story, during four generations of men. To
such an extent has the ideal Wyoming been treated, that its real historic
position has, to a great degree, been obscured by a mask of fanciful imagery,
while the characters which cluster around its memories have been more or less
deformed by prejudice and by " poetic license."
Inasmuch as the name of Thayendanegea has been almost inseparably linked
with a principal event in the history of Wyoming, over which no small amount
of controversy and misunderstanding has arisen, it is deemed both just and
proper to introduce an outline sketch of the relation which Wyoming bore to
the other colonial settlements of the north in general, and to the Six Nations
in particular.
INDIAN HISTORY. 99
** Wyoming is the name of a beautiful section of the Susquehanna Valley,
situated in the north-eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania. It is twenty-
five miles in length by three or four miles in width, lying deep between two
parallel ranges of mountains crested with oak and pine. The scenery around
is wild and picturesque, while the valley itself might be chosen for another
paradise."
The possession of this valley appears to have been a " bone of contention ''
among the prehistoric races who disappeared before the Indian's time. The
remains of earthworks and fortifications, so ancient (bat the largest oaks and
pines were rooted upon the ramparts and in the entrenchments, indicate that
it may have been the seat of power of a race of men far different from the
Indians. Within the white man's time, but before his possession, various Indian
tribes converted it into a field of strife, in the controversy over the right to its
scenes and its soiL
" It was here that Count Zinzendorf commenced his labours as a missionary
among the Shawanese." Originally it lay within the territory of the Delaware
Indians, but the Six Nations claimed it by right of conquest. In 1742 a grand
council of chiefs was held in Philadelphia, to settle a dispute concerning the
title to certain lands lying within the forks of the Delaware Biver, which the
proprietaries of Pennsylvania alleged that William Penn had boxight of the
Delawares, but which they had never given up, while at the same time the Six
Nations claimed the ownership.
'* The Governor of Pennsylvania having explained the state of the case to
the council, reminded the chiefs of the Six Nations that inasmuch as they had
always required the Grovemment of Pennsylvania to remove such whites as
intruded upon their lands, so now the Government expected the Six Nations to
remove the Indians from the lands which it had purchased. Old Cannasaateego
was the master spirit of the Iroquois delegation on this occasion, and after due
consideration he pronounced his decision. He rebuked the Delawares for their
dishonesty in first selling land which they did not own, and even then retaining
possession of it themselves. He taunted them with th3ir degraded position as
having been made women of by his people, and ordered uiem to remove to
Wyoming or Shamokin.
" The commands of the Six Nations (Iroquois) wet^e neither to be questioned
nor disregarded, and the Delaware clan straightway packed up and removed to
Wyoming, then in partial occupancy of a band of the Shawanese. The latter
were suffered to remain on the west side of the river, while the Delawares
planted themselves on the east side, and built their town of * Maughwauwame '
—the original of Wyoming."
The dose proximity of these two clans was no addition to their happiness,
and no long period elapsed before their animosities were sharpened into actual
hostilities.
Upon the breaking out of the old French War, the Shawanese espoused the
side of the French, while the Delawares united with the Six Nations as allies
of the English. The Indian communities at Wyoming finally came into open
conflict over the catching of a grasshopper, by a Shawanese chUd, on the Dela-
ware side of the river ; the children began a petty quarrel, their
mothers took up the contest, and an Amazonian battle was the result.
100 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the return of the warriors of the respective tribes, they too became incensed,
and a bloody battle was fought ; in this several hundreds were killed, and the
Shawanese were vanquished and obliged to leave the valley.
They then joined the main body of their tribe on the Ohio. This victory of
the Delawares over the Shawanese, restored them, in a great measure, to their
caste as warriors, and enabled them to retain their claim to the Wyoming
country, although the Six Nations held jurisdiction over it These coxiflicting
claims of Indian title were the cause of rival negotiations between white land
speculators, which ultimi^tely led to many and serious evils.
The first movement towards planting a white colony in the Wyoming Valley
was made by Connecticut, in 1753.
It was justly held that this section of country belonged to the grant of James
I., in 1620, to the old Plymouth (Company. The Eai'l of Warwick having
purchased the right of the Plymouth Company to the territory of Connecticut,
and the lands beyond New Jersey, west " from sea to sea," within certain
limits, Connecticut claimed these lands under that grant
But no sooner was a company formed to plant a colony in Wyoming, called
the Susquehanna Company, than Pennsylvania preferred a claim to the same
territory under a grant from Charles it, to William Penn, in 1681. A rival
association, called the Delaware Company, was organized in like manner to settle
it The first which each company undertook to accomplish was to circumvent
the other in purchasing the Indian title, it being conceded that the Six Nations
were the rightful owners. For a time the territory was refused to both parties,
but ultimately the Susquehanna Company were successful in their negotiations,
and in 1755 the Connecticut colony was commenced ; but on account of the
French and Indian wars their settlers were compelled to return to Connecticut,
and it was not until 1762 that they were enabled to obtain a foothold.
The Pennsylvanians immediately prepared to resist the Connecticut enter-
prise. A case was made up and submitted to Attomey-Greneral Pratt (after-
wards Lord Camden), of England, who delivered an opinion in favour of the
successors of Penn.
Connecticut likewise sent over a case, and on her part obtained a like favour-
able opinion from eminent counsel.
Thus far the relations between the colonists and the Indians had been of the
most pacific character. The old Delaware chief, Tadeuskund, had embraced the
Christian religion and was their friend, but he had given offence to-some of the
Six Nations in 1758, and in 1763 a party of warriors came down and murdered
the venerable chief by setting fire to his dwelling, in which he was consumed.
The murder was charged by the Indians upon the settlers from Connecticut,
who, imconscious of any wrong, remained in fancied security. The consequence
was, the sudden destruction of their settlement by a party of Delawares, on the
15th of October, 1763. The descent was made upon the town while the men
were at work in the field. Many were killed and others taken prisoners, while
those who could fied to the woods and wandered back to Connecticut, destitute
and on foot
In 1768 the Delaware Company took advantage of a treaty holden at Fort
Stanwix, and purchased of the same Six Nations the same territory of Wyoming.
The Pennsylvanians entered upon immediate possession, and when, in the ensu-
INDIAN HISTOBT. 101
ing spring, the Connecticut colonists returned, they found others in occupancy
of their lands, with a block-house erected, and armed for defence, under the
directions of Amos Ogden and Charles Stewart, to whom a lease of a section of
land had been granted by John Penn, for the express purpose of ousting the
Connecticut claimants. Here was a new state of things. Some of the leading
Connecticut men were arrested, and sent ofT to a distant prison. But recruits
coining on from Connecticut, they in turn built works of defence, and went on
with their labours.
The Governor of Pennsylvania sent a detachment of armed men, in the summer
of 1769, to dispossess the Connecticut people by force. The colonists prepared
for a si^e, but one of their leaders was captured and sent to jail in Phila-
delphia, and they soon capitulated and agreed to leave the territory, except
seventeen families, who were to remain and secure the crops. But no sooner
had they departed than the Pennsylvanians, led by Ogden, plundered the whole
colony, and drove them off in a state of destitution.
In Februaiy, 1770, the Connecticut people rallied, and marched upon
Wyoming, under a man named Lazarus Stewart. They took Ogden's castle
and his single piece of artillery, and in turn obliged him to agree to evacuate
the place, which he did, leaving six men to take charge of his remaining pro-
perty. But the eondnct of Ogden the year previous had not been forgotten,
and the " law of revenge " was speedily executed. In September, 1770, a force
of one hundred and fifty men, under Ogden, took the Connecticut settlers by
surprise, and the whole colony were again scattered and devastated. But
Ogden s triumph was brief. In December the fort was again surprised and
csaptured by Captain Stewart, and the Pennsylvanians driven out into the
foiest&
The State of Pennsylvania now took the matter in hand, and sent a posse to
arrest Stewart, who resisted, and made his escape with many of his followers.
The place again fell into the hands of the Ogdens, but not until one of them,
Nathan Ogden, had been killed. In July, 1771, the fort was again invaded by
the Connecticut colonists, under Colonel Zebulon Butler with seventy men, who
joined forces with Captain Stewart Ogden retired to a new fort and prepared
for fight, but finding such a course useless, he made his escape to Philadelphia,
and obtained the co-operation of State forces, under Colonel Asher Clayton.
Colonel Clayton advanced to the attack, but was ambushed by the Connec-
ticut men and completely vanquished, whereupon he and Ogden agreed to
evacuate the Wyoming country. The matter had now assumed such important
aspects that the Oovemors of the two States began to try to solve the disputed
question, but all to no practical purpose.
Meantime, the people of the colony proceeded to organize a government, and
to exercise almost all the attributes of sovereignty. Connecticut extended its
broad wings over it, and attached it to the county of Litchfield in the parent
State. The States of Pennsylvania and Connecticut kept up a war of edicts upon
the subject, while the settlement advanced in population and extent with
unexampled rapidity.
Thus matters proceeded until the year 1775, when just after the outbreak
between the British troops and the colonists at Lexington, the old feuds between
the settlers of the rival companies suddenly broke forth afresh.
7
102 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The enilire militia of the Connecticut settlements was soon in the field,
while Colonel Plunkett, at the head of seven hundred Pennsylvanians, marched
against Wyoming. The contest was severe, and resulted in the retreat of the
Pennsylvanians, nor did they attempt to rally again. This was the last effort
of the Government of Pennsylvania against the Valley of Wyoming.
At the risk of being charged with tedious irrelevancy, the foregoing sketch
of the history of Wyoming has been extracted mainly from Stone's " Life of
Biant," in order to explain the peculiar condition of things which existed there
during the Bevolutionary War. The reader will see that in no other part of
America was there such an amount and kind of fuel wherewith to feed the
fires of partisan hatred. Wyoming had been the scene of strife, and her soil
had been drenched in blood, for more than a quarter of a century before
Thayendanegea had attained special prominence as a warrior. The already
<livided and embittered portions of that beautiful valley were all the more highly
incensed by the events which marked the Bevolutionary period. Those
-who adhered to the Koyal cause, and those who were struggling for independ-
ence, were pitted against each other, in many instances with more than fiend-
ish hatred, and neither failed to improve any opportunity which presented
itself for inflicting all the penalties of a semi-barbarous warfare upon the
other.
" The population of the Wyoming settlements at the beginning of the war
was about five thousand. Three companies of regular troops had been enlisted
for the United States service, and their militia numbered eleven hundred men,
capable of bearing arms. So prolific was their soil, and so well was it tilled,
that they were enabled to furnish large supplies of provisions for the Provincial
army." All these circumstances and conditions combined to make Wyoming a
tempting objective point to those who had espoused the cause of its euemies.
Some demonstrations had been made during the summer of 1777, while St.
Leger was besieging Fort Schuyler, but after some skirmishing with the in-
habitants the intruders dispersed ; yet the impression prevailed that there was
mischief brewing, and the people were not altogether at ease, and in January,
i778, twenty-seven suspected inhabitants were an'ested. Nine of these were
discharged for want of evidence to warrant their detention ; the remaining
eighteen were sent to Hartford, in Connecticut, and imprisoned. The nine set
«t liberty immediately fled to the enemy, and were soon followed by others of
their Mends. It was but natural that these proceedings should still more em-
bitter the feelings of the Loyalists against the Whigs, and the effect was soon
perceptible in the behaviour of the Indians and their allies who patrolled
the borders.
During the spring of 1778 several petty incursions were made upon the
settlements, and some plundering and loss of life resulted therefrom.
Towards the close of June of this year CoL Guy Johnson, writing to Lord
Germain from New York, suggests the plan of employing the Indians in a
^ petit guerre " in their own way. The first expedition under this new mode
oi wiuHPare was organized at Niagara under CoL John Butler, consisting of
Loyalists and Indians, and was directed against Wyoming. Arriving at Tioga
Point, they procured floats and rafts, and descended the Susquehanna to a
place called the Three Islands, whence they marched across the country, and
INDIAN HISTORY. 103
entered the Valley of Wyoming through a mountain's gap near its northern
extremity. On tne 2nd of July they took possession of two small forts, one
of which was called the Exeter Fort, the other the Lackawana Fort (CoL John
Butler's headquarters).
The inhabitants were alarmed, and began immediate preparations for
defence. They assembled at Fort " Fortv/' about four miles below the head-
quarters of the British troops, and resolved to make a quick dash upon the
invaders, and vanquish them before the arrived of their rear guards and thus take
them in their weakest numerical strength. Colonel Zebulon Butler was the
commander of the Wyoming forces, and was not favourable to the attack,
preferring to await the arrival of reinforcements from Washington's army,
but he was overcome by the counsel of his fellow-officers, and finally con-
sented to the advance.
An engagement followed, which resulted in the defeat of the Provincials,
and the sadcing and pillamng of the entire district known as Wyoming. The
inhabitants were dispersed and destroyed by all the means known to a ruth-
less foe; atrocities were committed which can only be accounted for as
accumulations of " wrath against the day of wrath," wherein brothers were
slain by each other, and flesh was pitted against its kin.
Colonel Zebulon Butler collected his scattered and broken remnants, and
united them to a detachment of the continental army : with this force he
repossessed himself of the valley, the British commander having retired to
Niagara, and the Indians to their homes.
Other minor affairs were enacted on the same ground before the close of the
Eevolutionary War, while the dispute over the land title was not settled
until many years later, after much more strife of the kind already mentioned.
At the time of the invasion of Wyoming, Brant was probably the most
noted Indian in America. As a poweiful auxiliary of the Crown, ne had been
encouraged by praise and laudation, until in England, as well as here, his
name was a symbol which expressed in a breath everything connected with
the parts played by the Indians in the military operations of the times.
Furthermore, ne was known to have been a principal actor in many of the
scenes which transpired upon territory immediately adjoining the Wyoming
country.
Thus it was both natural and easy to associate his name with every deed
which was in any way obscure, just as Tecumseh and Sitting Bull, and other
noted leaders, have been charged with the doings of those who were absent
from them in person and purpose.
Immediately after the Wyoming affair, there went up a wail and a cursing
from every Provincial hearthstone. "Mother" England caught up the
fiound, and echoed it back in the songs of her bards, and the lamentations of
her statesmen and philosophers. So firmly were these impressions noted,
that Thomas Campbell, after a lapse of more than thirty years from the
engagement, made a popular " hit " in the publication of his celebrated poem,
entitled " Gertrude of Wyoming."
The poet made Brant the leader in this expedition, and heaped great
obloquy upon his good name and character, for his more than savage barbarity
on that occasion.
104 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The particular stanzas, ^^herein Thayendanegea was so unjustly stigmatized^
are as follows : —
" * Bat this is not the time,' — he started up.
And smote his heart with woe-denonncmg hand —
' This ie no time to fill the jovons cup,
The mammoth comes — ^tbe foe — the monster Brant,
With iJl his howling, desolating band ;
These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine
Awake at onoe, and silence half your land.
Red is the cop they drink, but not with wine :
Awake, and watch to-night ! or see no morning shine ! *
" Scorning to wield the hatchet for his tribe,
'Gainst Brant himself I went to batUe for^ :
Accursed Brant ! he left of all my tribe
Nor man, nor child, nor thini; of living birth.
No ! not the dog that watched my household hearth
Escaped that night of blood, upon our plains 1
All perishtd — I alone am left on earth !
To whom nor relative nor blood remains ;
No, not a kindred drop that runs' in human veins !"
This poem was not published until a year or two after the death of Captain
Brant, but it gave great offence to his family and friends, who stoutly denied
his connection with the Wyoming affair. His son and successor, John Brant,
visited England in 1821-2, and having procured the necessary documents to
prove his father's innocence, he waited upon the distinguished author (Campbell)
and obtained from him the following statement, which has been incorporated
with the notes of every edition of the work since then :
" I took the character of Brant in the poem of * Grertrude of Wyoming,' fipom
the common histories of England, all of which represented him as a bloody and
bad man even among savages, and chief agent in the horrible desolation of
Wyoming.
'' Some years after this poem appeared, the son of Brant, a most mteresting and
intelligent youth, came over to Englan(l ; and I formed an acquaintance with
him, on which I still look back with pleasure. He appealed to my sense of
honour and justice, on his own part and that of his sister, to retract the unfair
aspersions which, unconscious of their unfairness, I had cast on his father's
memory. He then referred me to documents which cx)mpletely satisfied me
that the common accounts of Brant's cruelties at Wyoming, which I found in
books of travels, and in Adolphus' and similar histories of England, were gross
errors, and that in point of fact Brant was not even present at that scene of
desolation. It is, unhappily, to Britons and Anglo-Americans that we must
refer the chief blame in this horrible busint^ss. I published a letter expressing
this belief in the New Monthly Magazine, in the year 1822, to which I must
refer the reader if he has any curiosity on the subject, for an antidote to my
fanciful description of Brant. Among other expressions to young Brant, I made
use of the following words: Had I learned all this of your father, when I was
writing my poem, he should not have fi^^ured in it as the hero of mischief.
" It was but bare justice to say this much of a Mohawk Indian who spoke
English eloquently, and was thought capable oi having written a history of tho
Six Nations. I also learn that he often strove to mitigate the cruelty of Indian
INDIAN HISTORY. 105
warfare. The name of Brant, therefore, remains in my poem a pure and
dedared character ot fiction.^*
It has been reported that Campbell promised to expunge the objectionable
lines, bat he never did ; and the somewhat obscure note is all the satisfaction
ever given for a great wrong, as the poem lives through succeeding generations,
while the note, if read at all, make3 little impression, and is soon forgotten.
Much has been written and said conceruin;? Brant's participation in the
exp:^ition against Wyoming. The efforts to establish his absence from that
desolating scene weie not made until after his death, or at least not until many
years after the close of the Revolutionary War, and of course were difficult to
accomplish. The venerable Seneca chief, Kaoundoowand, commonly called
Captain Pollard, was in the battle of Wyoming, and he declared most unequivo-
callv that Brant was not there. Several other survivors of that battle were
equally positive in their assertions. The Indians were chiefly Senecas, and
were led by a chief named Gi-en-gwah-toh.
The late Philip R Frey, of Palatine, New York, was an ensign in H. B. M.'8
Eighth R^ment ; he served in the campaign and battle of Wyoming, and bore
uniform testimony that Bi*ant was not there, neither were there any other
chiefs of much notoriety with the Indians on that expedition. His statement
was to the efifect that one Captain Bird, of the Eighth, was the commander of
the Indians, who united with a detachment of that regiment at Detroit, and
proceeded to Niagara, where they were attached to Butler's Bangers.
Ensign Frey further states that " Bird had been engaged in a love affair at
Detroit, but being very ugly, besides having a hair-lip, he was unsuccessful"
The affair getting wind, his fellow-officers made themselves merry at his ex-
pense, and in order to drown his griefs in forgetfulness, he obtained permission
to lead an expedition against the American frontier. After his union with
Butler s forces, they arranged the expedition against Wyoming. Bird was cross
and ill-natured during the whole march, and acted with foolbardiness at the
hattla"
" Barely indeed does it happen that history is more at fault in regard to
facts than in the case of Wyoming. The remark may be applied to nearly
every writer who has attempted to narrate the events connected with the inva-
sion by Colonel John Butler. Bamsay, and Gordon, and Marshall, nay, the
British historians themselves, have written gross exaggerations.
Other writers, of greater or less note, have gravely recorded the same fictions,
adding, it is to be feared, enormities not even conveyed to them by tradition.
No regular troops surrendered, and all escaped who
survived the battle of the 3rd. Equally untrue was the story of the burning of
houses, barracks and forts, filled with women and children.
*" There is still another important correction to be made to the history of this
battle, and that is in regard to the name and the just fame of Joseph Brant,
whose character was blackened with all the infamy, both real and imaginary,
<^onnected with this expedition.
" Whether Captain Brant was at any time in company with this expedition
is doubtful, but it is certain, according to ev^ry British and American authority,
that he was not present at the battle, but that he was miles away at the time
of its occurrence."
106 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
In the controversy which fonneriy existed over the correctness of various
historic details, it \vas claimed by some that Brant's friends should prove for
him an ** alibi/' i.e., show where he was, if not at Wyoming. This would be
difficiQt indeed, if it was at all necessary. There is no doubt about Brant's
being at or near Niagara when Butler and Bird planned the movement on
Wyoming; it is equally certain that he was displeased with the position
assigned him, under those whom he chose to regard as inferiors, so far as that
kind of fighting was concerned. This placed him in a semi-neutral frame of
mindy so that he did not ent«r into the scheme with anything more than a show
of acquiescence ; he therefore took his own course, and followed the movement
independently, over his old and familiar war-paths, until he arrived at, or in the
vicinity of, the Indian towns on the Susquehanna, below Unadilla. By doing
this he could co-operate with Colonel Butler without taking any active part in
the battle proper, or being present personally. It is altogether probable that
Brant commanded the " covering force," or reargtutrd, which never had occasion
to enter the Wyoming Valley, in conjunction with the main body under Butler.
Those who insist upon maldng Brant a party to the bloody deeds at Wyom-
ing, should in all fairness bring forward the evidence of his presence there,
and if possible disprove the statements of Brant himself, and those who, by
situation or kinship, are prepared to deny his participation in that affair. In
the absence of any authentic evidence to the contrary, he should at least be
given the benefit of the grave and reasonable doubts which surround the popu-
lar and " poetic" charges against him.
Brant's next exploit was at Andrustown, a small hamlet about six miles
south-east of German Flats. This settlement consisted of seven families,
planted upon a lot of one thousand acres. On the 18th of July, 1778, a small
band of Indians, led by Brant in person, made a descent upon this little
settlement and wiped it out of existence. A few people were killed, and the
remainder carried into captivity. The object of the enemy appears to have
been plunder. The news of this affair started a band of Whigs from German
Flats in pursuit of the enemy. They followed as far as Young's Settlement
and abandoned the chase, but not until they had avenged the Andrustown
raid by plundering and burning the property of two Loyalists named Young
and Collyer.
German Flats was the name of an extensive and populous settlement in
the Mohawk Valley. It was the home of General Herkimer, and had been
an important pioneer station for many years. At the close of August or early
in September of this year (1778), this fine station was laid waste, and the
buildings burned, and live stock driven off or killed ; but two lives were lost,
however. This dash was under the personal leadership of Captain Brant.
The next event in Brant's carrer as a warrior appears to have been in con-
nection with the invasion of Cherry Valley, in November, 1778. This expedi-
tion, too, was or^nixed at Niagara, at the instigation of Walter Butler (son
of Colonel John Butler), and was placed under his command. . Captain Brant,,
who, with his Indian warriors, had been employed on the Susquehanna during
most of the summer, was on his return to winter quarters^ at Niagara. Meet-
ing Butler with his forces, bearing an order for Brant to joij* the expedition
with his force, Brant was reluctant to do so, displeased at being placed under
INDIAN HLSTORY. lOT
oommand of Walter Butler; but he was too much a soldier to refuse to obey
orders.
Colouel Ichabod Alden was in command of the post at Cherry Valley, and
had disregarded frequent warnings from the old frontier men who were with
him. When the onset was made by the British and Indians, Colonel Alden
fell by the tomahawk of a warrior.
It is not necessary to recount the details of the attack on this station ; it
was another complete destruction of life and property, accompanied by all the
bloody and cruel particulars of these timea Brant's humanity was conspicu-
ously* displayed in the attack upon Cherry Valley, at which he woe present^
but was not in command.
History has recorded to the credit of Joseph Brant that on this occasion he
exhibited traits of humanity which seemed to be wanting in some at least of
the white men present. " In a house which he entereahe found a woman
engaged in her usual avocations. * Why are you thus engaged V said Brant to her»
* wnile your neighbours are being murdered all around you V * We are king's
people/ she replied. ' That plea will not avail you to-day. They have murdered
Mr. Well's family, who are as dear to me as my own. * There is one Joseph
Brant,' she said, ' if he is with the Indians he will save us.' ' I am Joseph
Brant,' he said, ' but I have not the command, and I know not whether I can
save you. But I will do what I can.' While speaking, several Senecas were
observed approaching the house. ' Get into bed and feign yourself sick,' said
Brant, hastily. When the Senecas came in, he told them there was no person
there but a sick woman and her children, and besought them to leave the
house, which, after a short consultation, they did. As soon as they were out
of sight Brant went to the comer of the house and gave a long shrill yell.
Soon a small band of Mohawks were seen crossing an adjoining field with
great speed. As they came up, he addressed them : • Where is your paint ?
Here, put my mark on this woman.' As soon as it was done, he added, ' You
are now probably safe.' "
The reader will remember the letter which Captain McKean had left in the
Indian trail, inviting Brant to visit Cherry Valley, and get himself transformed
into a " goose."
After the battle was over. Brant inquired of one of the captives for Captain
McKean, who was absent at the time of the attack. " He sent me a challenge
once. I have now come to accept it ; he is a fine soldier to retreat thus.
. . . . He is a brave man, and I would have given more to have taken
him than any man in Cherrv Valley ; but I would not have hurt a hair of his
head."
The following letter from Brant to Parcifer Carr, written in July previous
to the capture of Cherry Valley, is interesting in this connection, while it
exhibits, probably, a fair specimen of his epistolary style : —
" Snt, — I understand by the Indians that was at your hoUdC last week, that
one Smith lives near you, has little more com to spare. I should be much
obliged to you if you would be so kind as to try to get as much com aa
Smith can spared. He has sent me five skipples already, of which I am much
obliged to him, and will see him paid, and would be very glad if you could
108 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
spare one or two of your men to join us, especially Elias. I would be glad
to see him, and I wish you could sent me as many guns as you have to spare,
as I know you have no use for them ; as I mean now to fight the cruel rebels
as well as I can ; whatever you will able to sent'd me, you must sent'd by the
bearer.
" I am your sincere friend and humble ser't,
"Joseph Brant."
" P. 8. — I heard that Cherry Valley people is very bold, and intend to make
nothing of us. They call us Wild Oeese, but I know the contrary."
Minisiuk, Orange County, New York, was the scene of Brant's next per-
formance. On the niffht of July 19, 1779, the crafty Mohawk stole upon the
slumbering town, at the head of sixty Indians and twenty-seven Loyalists ;
such was the silence of their approach, that several houses were in fiames
before the inhabitants were fairly awakened. Ten houses and several barns
were burnt. Many persons were killed, and others carried away captive. The
usual desolation was spread over the whole settlement, after which Brant and
his forces made a hasty retreat. They were followed by a force of militia,
which overtook them the next day, and a desperate fight ensued ; the militia
were defeated, and most of them killed. Major Wood, of Orange County, was
made a prisoner, but saved his life by using a masonic sign, which Brant
promptly recognized ; Wood pledged his word to Brant that he would not
attempt to escape, if permitted to go without being tied. That night he was
placed between two Indians, and told that if he tried to escape he would be
tomahawked instanter : during the night his blanket took fire, and he dared
not put it out for fear of a "jolt " on the head ; finally, when it burned up to his
feet, he kicked it out. It was Brant's blanket. Brant treated him rather
harshly after, and when Wood asked him the reason, he replied, " D — n
you ! you burnt my blanket." The truth was that Wood had made a fraudu-
lent use of his knowledge of freemasonry, and Brant knew it. That was
probably what ailed the blanket.
The prisoner finally returned in safety, after a long captivity. He after-
wards joined the freemasons, and lived n)any years as an influential citizen
and public oflBcial of Orange County.
From Minisink Brant made a rapid movement, and fell upon a settlement on
the south side of the Mohawk River, where, on the 2nd of August, he made a
few prisoners. The name of one of them was House, who soon became too
lame to continue the journey. The Indians proposed to kill him, but Brant
interposed, and the prisoner's life was spared : he ultimately returned to his
friends.
In the summer of 1779, the American forces, commanded by Generals Clinton
and Sullivan, were ordered to make an aggressive expedition against the Seneca
country. The two armies united at Tioga, New York, on the 22nd of August,
and advanced upon the British and Indians, who were established at Newtown
(now called Elmira). At this point a spvere engagement took place, which
resulted in the defeat of the Boyal forces. The Indians in this battle were com-
manded by Brant in person, who conducted them with great skill and bravery.
This affair is generally known as the battle of the Chemung.
INDIAN HISTORY. 109
Shortly after this, Brant's party captured Lieutenant Boyd of the American
army, who fell into the hands of the Indians at Beardstown on the Oenesee
river.
Brant interceded and saved the officer's life, but he was subsequently exe-
cuted after the Indian fashion, by order of one of the Butlers during the absence
of Brant on other duty.
The campaign of General Sullivan against the Senecas, in 1779, proved very
disastrous to tibe Indians. Although vigorously opposed by all the available
British force, both English and Indian, Sullivan penetrated into the Senecas'
country, destroying their towns, and all their property and provisions, and
driving the Indians under the protection of the guns of Foi*t Niagara. Capt.
Brant accompaoied the expedition from Niagara against Gen. Sullivan, having the
immediate command of the Indian \ and again distinguished himself by his
valour and humanity.
The winter of 1779-80 was one of extraordinary severity. The snow fell to
the depth of eight feet over all Western New York and in Canada. The Indians
suffered greatly by sickness and destitution. Numbers died from exposure and
starvation, and the carcasses of dead animals were so numerous in the forests the
next summer, as to fill the atmosphere with the pestiferous odour of their decay-
ing bodies. Capt Brant returned to Niagara, and took up his winter quarters
with CoL Guy Johnson, the Butlers — father and son — and other officers of the
Indian Department.
About this time Brant and his Indians made an expedition against the
Oneida Indians, which tribe had refused to join the Mohawks in behalf of the
King. Their castle was invaded, their crops destroyed, and they were thrown
upon the United States for provisions and shelter.
Aside from the destruction of the Oneida country, it is believed that Brant
undertook no important expedition during the winter of 1780.
The month of April found him on the war-path, at the head of a small party
of Loyalists and Indians, whom he led against Harperstield, which was taken by
surprise and entirely destroyed.
Proceeding from Harpersfield, it was Brant's design to make an attack upon the
upper fort of Schoharie, but this part, of his project was prevented by an unex-
pected occurrence. Capt Alexander Harper, the ancestor of the Harper Brothers,
the well known publishers, had been sent out with a small party of men to keep
an outlook over certain parties, and at the same time to make a quantity of
maple sugar, of which the garrison were much in need.
£rant» in wending his way from Harpersfield to Schoharie, fell suddenly upon
Harper and his party, and immediately surrounded them ; so silent and cautious
had been the approach of the enemy that the first admonition Harper received
of their presence was the death of three of his little band, who were stricken
down while engaged at their work.
Capt. Brant knew Capt. Harper well, and on recognizing him among the
prisoners, rushed up to him, tomahawk in hand, and said, " Harper, I am sorry
to find yon here." " Why are you sorry, Capt. Brant ? " " Because," rejoined
Brant^ " I must kill you, although we were schoolmates when we were boys."
As scalps were much easier carried to Niagara than prisoners, the Indians were
for putting the prisoners to death, but Bmnt's influence was exerted successfully
110 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
to prevent the massacre. . When they arrived at the Genesee River and
encamped for the night, Capt. Brant dispatched a mnner to Niagara with infor-
mation of his approach, and the number of his prisoners. His friend, Capt.
Powell, who married Miss Moore, the Cherry Valley captive, was at the fort.
Capt. Brant knew that Capt Harper was unde to Miss Moore, now Mrs. Powell,
and it had been agreed, in consideration of sparing their lives, that on arrival at
the fort the prisoners should go through the customary Indian ordeal of running
the gauntlet. Before arriving at the fort two Indian encampments had to be
passed ; but on emerging from the woods and approaching the first, what was
the surprise of the prisoners and the chagrin of their captors, at finding the war-
riors absent, and their place filled by a regiment of British soldiers. A few
Indian boys and some old women only were visible, who offered some violence
to the prisoners, which was quickly suppressed by the soldiers. At the second
encampment nearest the fort, they found the warriors absent also, and their
place occupied by another regiment of troops. Capt. Brant led his prisoners
directly through the dreaded encampments, and brought them in safety into the
fort. The solution of this escape from the gauntlet was, that Capt Powell had,
at the su^estion of Captain Brant, enticed the warriors away to the "Nine-mile
Landing ' for a frolic, the means for holding it being furnished from the public
stores. Colonel Harper was most agreeably surprised at escaping the gauntlet
with his party, and at being met by his niece, the wife of one of the principal
officers in command of the post Harper knew nothing of her marriage, or even
of her being at Niagara, Capt Brant having kept it a secret from him. He was
held as a prisoner of war for a long period, but wds finally exchanged and
returned to his friends.
Brant's next expedition was against the Saugerties settlements. This was in
May, 1780. It was upon this occasion that Captain Jeremiah Snider and his
son, of Saugerties, N. Y., with others, were taken prisoners. Those prisoners
were taken over the same route as Capt Harper and his party, but did not
escape as fortunately when they arrived at Niagara, as they had to run the
gauntlet between long lines of Indian warriors, women and children. But their
captors interposed to prevent injury. Capt Snider, in his narrative of this
event, describes Fort Niagara as a structure of considerable magnitude and great
strength, enclosing an area of from six to eight acres. Within the enclosure was
a handsome dwelling house for the residence of the Superintendent of Indians.
It was then occupied oy Col. Guy Johnson, before whom the captain and his son
were brought for examination. Col. John Butler, with his Eangers, lay upon the
opposite side of the river. Capt. Snider describes Gen. Johnson as being '' a
short, pussy man, about forty years of age, of a stem, haughty demeanour, dressed
in a British uniform, powdered locks and cocked hat, his voice harsh, and his
brogue that of a gentleman of Irish extraction.'' While in the guardhouse the
prisoners were visited by Capt Brant, of whom Capt. Snider says, " He was a
likely fellow of fierce aspect, tall and rather spare, well spoken, and apparently
about thirty years of age." (He was actually thirty-seven.) " He wore moc-
casins elegantly trimmed with beads, leggins and breech-cloth, of superfine blue ;
short green coat, with two silver epaulettes, and a small laced, round hat. By
his side hung an elegant silver-mounted cutlass, and his blanket of blue cloth,
purposely dropped in the chair on which he sat to display his epaulettes, was
INDIAN HISTORY. ^ 111
gorgeously decorated with a border of red. He asked the prisoners many ques-
tions ; indeed, the object of their captnre seems to have been principally for the
purpose of obtaining information." Upon being informed where they were
from, Capt. Brant replied, " That is my old fighting ground." In the course of
the conversation Brant said to the younger Snider, '' You are young, and I pity
you ; but for that old villain there,*' pointing to the father, *' I have no pity."
On the 2nd of August, 1780, Brant again made his appearance in the Mohawk
Valley ; the south side of the river, for several miles, was completely devastated ;
the town of Canajoharie was burned, its inhabitants carried off or killed, and
their property destroyed. In accomplishing this work Brant had outflanked
the American officer. The result was deplorable enough ; but it added another
plume to the crest of " the Great Captain of the Six Nations." .
The 16th of October, 1780, was made memorable by the invasion of the
Schoharie country. The expedition was successful to the British arms. In
this movement Brant was the leader of the Indians, and several anecdotes
concerning his personal actions, in connection with the affair, are found here
and there. Among the captures made by him at that place was a man named
Yrooman, with whom he had been formerly acquainted. He concluded to give
Vrooman his liberty, and after they had proceeded several miles he sent
Vrooman back about two miles alone, ostensibly to procure some birch bark,
expecting of course to see no more of hinu After several hours Vrooman came
hurrying back with the bark, which the captain no more wanted than he did
a pair of goggles. Brant said he sent his prisoner back on purpose to afford
him an opportunity to escape, but he was so big a fool he did not know it, and
that consequently he was compelled to take him along to Canada. Those who
study the details of the history of that period will find much more concerning:;
the Vrooman family, of which no less than six or seven were made prisoners
at one time or another.
After the close of the war Captain Brant visited Hudson, New York ; he was
waited upon by many old acquaintances, and among the rest was a loquacious
Dutchman who had known him before the Bevolution. In a boasting and
rather uncivil way the Dutchman told him if he had met him in the border
wars he would have put an end to his career. Brant parried the attack with a
pleasant anecdote. " And if you had met me," said he, " it would have been
with you just as it was with your neighbor . He had boasted just ^ you
are boosting now. In a skirmish I happened to meet him ; he took to his heels,
and hardly stopped to take breath until he ary ved in Albany, where a fire had
just broken out, and the Dutchmen were in the streets, crying ' Braunt ! braunt !*
(fire ! fire !). Stopping short, he exclaimed in amazement, ' The d d Indian
has got here before me !' *' This story is supposed to be founded upon an incident
of this campaign, but whether it occurred in the Schoharie or Mohawk VaUey,
both of which were devastated, is not known.
The British forces were finally met by a body of American troops under
General Van Eensselaer, and a battle was fought at Flock's Field, in which
engagement the Americans were victorious and the invading allies were
obliged to make a rapid retreat from the valley with General Rensselaer push-
ing after them. At Fort Hunter the plundered inhabitants crowded around
him with their tales of loss or grief. Among them was a woman whose
112 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
husband and other relatives were missing. She was in an agony of grief over
the loss of her infant, which had been snatched from the ^cradle. 'Ekrlj next
morning a young Indian warriur came bounding into the room like a sts^ ; he
bore an infant in his arms, and with it a letter addressed " to the Commanding
Officer of the Rebel Army." The letter was substantially as follows : " Sib, — ^I
send by one of my runners the child which he will deliver, that you may
know that whatever others may do, I do not make war upon women and
children." The letter was from Thayendanegea, and the baby was none other
than that of the disconsolate mother who has been mentioned. In this engage-
ment Brant was wounded in the heel, but not seriously enough to prevent his
escape. Concerning this little circumstance several absurd anecdotes have been
narrated by careless or misinformed writers. One of these stories was to the
effect that Brant despatched an American prisoner who was in conversation
with Col. Johnson at the time, and that his heel felt easier for the deed.
The close of the season of 1780 found Capt. Brant in his old winter quarters
at Fort Niagara, with CoL Butler and Col. Guy Johnson. The forces at Niagara
were stated at this time to consist of sixty British regulars, commanded by a
captain ; four hundred L-jyalists, commanded by Col. John Butler ; twelve
hundred Indians, including women and children, commanded by Guy Johnson
and Capt. Joseph Brant The particular parts enacted by Captain Brant
during the continuance of the Revolutionary struggle were in no way different
from those already recorded ; he was active, able and successful in all he under-
took in behalf of the Royal cause. In the spring of 1781 an expedition against
the revolted Oneidas in the Mohawk Valley was planned under the approbation
of Gen. Haldimand, to be commanded by Brant, but for some unexplained
reason was never executed. Vigorous incursions were kept up by small parties
of Loyalists and Indians during the season, sometimes under Capt. Brant but
often under the command of others. This state of things continued with
varying fortunes until the news of an agreement for the cessation of hostilities
between the United States and Great Britain was received.
After th^ cessation of active operations, Thayendanegea turned his attention
to the pressing needs of his people, as will be more fully treated of further on.
The end of the Revolutionary War, properly so called, did not terminate the
military career of Captain Brant, but, on the other hand, bid fair at one time
to extend his fame as the chieftain of the united tribes of North America.
Not only the greater part of the Six Nations, but a majority of the tribes of
the west and north-west, had 1|^n friendly to the British cause during the
war; and when a principal portion of the lands of these Indians was conveyed
by treaty to their late enemy, the United States, they very naturally mani-
fested much discontent, more especially as Britain had, for some unexplained
cause, neglected to make any provision for them in her treaty with the new-
fledged I^publia
Among the prominent Indian characters of that period were Red Jacket,
Corn Planter, Black Hoof, and many others of lesser note, but above all these
towered the consummate genius of Joseph Tliayendanegea; the eyes of his race
seemed to be turned towards him as their deliverer from the fate of banish*
ment from the hunting grounds of their fathers. Brant has been charged
with being ambitious for the leadership of a confederacy of all the principal
INDIAN BISTORT. 113
Indian.tribes, but the faets, which are too numerous to relate in this connec-
tion, do not warrant so strong a condusiou. The Indian war, which followed
in a few years after the War of the Eevolution, was waged by the combined
tribes of the old North- West Territory against the llDited States for the pur-
pose of resisting the tide of emigration which began to roll westward over
their country upon the approach of peace.
That Brant was both an active and an influential agent in those well known
campaigns is undisputed. He visited England in December, 1785, and it has
been frequently asserted that his mission there was to secure the co-operation
of the British Government in conducting these campaigns ; while the result
demonstrated that he was in a measure successful, yet there was no open
declaration of such a purpose. He returned to America in 1786, probably in
July, and devoted himself to various matters pertaining to the Six Nations in
particular, and to his scheme for a confederation generally. In the last-named
interest he was much absorbed, and was present at many of the more import-
ant councils and treaty meetings which were held throughout the west. It
is not known that he was personally engaged in any of the battles of that
bloody frontier conflict across the lakes, but many of his Mohawk warriors
were. Efforts were made to secure peace by both the Government of Great
Britain and that of the United States, and the acknowledged ability and influ-
ence of Captain Brant was sought by both, and led to an active and extensive
correspondence ^ith the officers and agents of both Governments. Early in
1792 Captain Brant was invited to visit the city of Philadelphia, the then
seat of Government of the United Statea The newspapers in New York
announced hLs arrival in that city in the following terms : " On Monday last
arrived in this city from his settlement on the Grand River, on a visit to some
of his friends in this quarter. Captain Joseph Brant, of the British army, the
famous Mohawk chief, who so eminently distinguished himself during the
late war, as the military leader of the Six Nations. We are informed that he
intends to visit the city of Philadelphia," which he did in June, 1792, and was
received by the President of the United States .with cordiality and respect.
There is no doubt that strenuous efforts were made at this time to engage his
active interposition with the Indians to bring about peace, and also to con-
ciliate his friendship to the United States. Although nothing could divert
him from his loyalty to the Government of his choice, yet the visit seems to
have given mutual satisfaction to himself and the President. The Secretary
of War wrote to General Chapin, U. S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs, as
follows : " Captain Brant's visit will, I flatter myself, be productive of great
satisfaction to himself, by being made acquainted with the humane views of
the President of the United States." The Secretary also wrote to General
Clinton : " Captain Brant appears to be a judicious and sensible man. I flatter
myself his journey will be satisfactory to himself and beneficial to the United
States." Still, however, the war raged until the victorious arms of General
Wayne, in August, 1794, compelled the Indians to surrender all hope of hold-
ing their coveted territory. In the language of Captain Brant, in one of his
speeches delivered long afterwards : " The Indians, convinced by those in the
Miami Fort and other circumstances, that they were mistaken in their expec-
tations of any assistance from Great Britain, did not longer oppose the
114 HISTOifTf OF BRANT COUNTY.
Americans with their wanted unanimity. The consequence was that General
Wayne induced them to hold a treaty at his own headquarters, in which he
concluded a peace entirely on his own terms." With this event the career of
the great Monawk chief tarn as a warrior ended.
Brant's Civil Career.
When the Mohawks first abandoned their native valley to join the British
standard. Sir Guy Carleton had given a pledge that as soon as the war was
ended they should be restored, at the expense of the Government, to the con-
dition they were in before the contest began. In April, 1770, G^n. Haldimand,
then Commander-in-Chief in Canada, ratified the promise of his predecessor,
pledging himself under hand and seal, so far as in him lay, to its faithful
execution, *' when that happy time should come." Long before the close of
the Revolutionary War, the Mohawks, with their Loyalist neighbours in the
Valley of the Mohawk, had fled to Canada. Their beautiful country, together
with that of their. brethren of the Six Nations, had been desolated By the
ravages of fire and sword. At the close of the war the Mohawks were tempo-
rarily residing on the American side of the Niagara River, at what was then
called "The Landing," now called Lewiston. Their brethren, the Senecas,
offered them a portion of their lands upon the Genesee Biver. But as Captain
Brant said, " The Mohawks were determined to sink or swim with the Engl^h ; "
the generous offer of the Senecas was declined ; and the Mohawk chief pro-
ceeded to Quebec to arrange for the settlement of his people in the royal
dominions. A tract of land upon the Bay of Qiiinte was designated for their
settlement But upon the return, of Captain Brant to his people, the location
was unsatisfactory to their brethren, the Senecas, who, apprehending that
their troubles with the United States were not at an end, desired their settle-
ment near the Senecas' territory. Under these circumstances. Captain Brant
convened a council of his people, and the country upon the " Ouse," or Grand
Biver, was selected, lying upon both sides of that stream from its mouth upon
Lake Erie, to its hend ; which was conveyed to the Mohawks, and others of
the Six Nations who chose to settle there, by a formal grant from the Crown.
It was at this period that Brant resolved to visit England a second time, for the
purpose of peif ecting all necessary plans for the settlement of his people on
the soil where he had so faithfully served to maintain the honour of the British
flag. Sir John Johnson, who had visited England immediately after the war,
returned to Canada during the summer of 1785. He seems to have been
charged with the settlement of the Indian claims, but accomplished nothing to
their satisfaction. Johnson was strongly opposed to Brant's mission across the
Atlantic, and wrote, on the 6th of November, strongly dissuading him from the
undertaking. But the chief was not to be diverted from his purpose, and he
sailed in time to arrive about the 12th of December. A notice of his arrival in
Salisbury was published in London, in December, 1785. His reception at the
British capital was all that he could wish. He was treated with the highest
consideration and distinction. Many officers of the army wliom he had met in
America recognized him with great cordiality. His arrival was thus announced :
^' Monday last. Captain Joseph Brant, the celebrated King of the Mohawks,
INDIAN HISTORY.* 115
arrived in this city from America ; and after dining with Colonel De Peister at
ihe headquarters here, proceeded immediately to London. This extraordinary
personage is said to have presided at the late grand congress of confederate
chiefs of the Indian nations in America, and to be by them appointed to the
conduct and chief command in the war which they now meditate against the
United States of America He took his departure for England immediately as
that assembly broke up, and it is conjectured that his embassy to the British
Court is of great importance. This country owes much to the services of
Captain Brant daring the late war in America. He was educated at Phila-
delphia; is a very shrewd, intelligent person, possesses great courage and
abilities as a warrior, and is inviolably attached to the British nation?' The
Baroness Biedesel thus speaks of him, having met him at the provincial court :
** I saw at times the famous Indian chief. Captain Brant. His manners were
polished, he expressed himself with fluency, and was much esteemed by Gren.
Haldimand. I dined once with him at the General's. In his dress he showed
off to advantage in the half-military, half-saveige costume. His countenance
was manly and intelligent, and his disposition mild."
Many little incidents which occurred during this second visit to the British
capital, have furnished the basis for several anecdotes of Brant ^ Preliminary
to his introduction to the King, he was receiving instructions in regard to the
customary ceremonies to be observed. When he was informed that he was to
salute his Majesty by dropping on the knee and kissing the King's hand,
Brant objected to this part of the ceremony, saving if it was a lady it would
be a pleasant and proper thing to do ; but that he, being himself a king in his
own country, thought it derogatory to his dignity, and contrary to his sense of
propriety, to perform such a servile act During his stay in London, a grand
fancy dress ball, or masquerade, was gotten up and numerously attended by
the nobility and gentry. Captain Brant was also present, richly dressed in the
costume of his nation, wearing no mask, but painting one half of his face.
His plumes nodded proudly in his head-dress, and his silver-mounted toma-
hawk glittered in his girdle. There was likewise present a stately Turkish
diplomat of rank, whose attention was particularly attracted by the chieftain's
singular and, as he supposed, fantastic attire. The pageant was brilliant, but
amongst the whole motley throng of pilgrims, warriors, hermits, shepherds,
knights, damsels and gipsies, there was, to the eyes of the Mussulman, no
character so picturesque and striking as that of the Mohawk, which, being
natural, appeared to be the best make up. The Turk scrutinized the chief very
closely, and at last attempted to handle his nose. In an instant Brant, who
had watched the prying eyes of the Oriental, and was in the mood for some
fun, raised the war-whoop and brandished his tomahawk over the astounded
Mussulman's head. Such a piercing and frightful cry had never before rung
through those halls ; there was a general scramble of all hands to fly from
the Uood-curdling scene — it is said that some of the aflrighted ones even
tumbled down stairs in their confusion. The matter was explained, and was
accounted a good incident in the affairs of the evening.
But neither the pleasures of society, nor the special business of his mission,
nor yet the views of political ambition which he was cherishing at the time,
made him forgetful of the moral wants of his people. He had found time to
116 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
translate the Gospel of Mark into the Mohawk language ; and as most of the
Indian Prayer and Psalm Books had been destroyed daring the war, he assisted
in bringing out a new and superior edition of that work. After accomplish-
ing much of what he desired in England, he returned to his people in the
early part of the year 1786. In the grant of the land to the Mohawks, such
other of the Six Nations as were inclined to make their settlement upon it
were included. This led to some difficulty and dissatisfaction, by the intrusion
of individuals of the Six Nations who did not fully sympathize with the Mo-
hawks in their loyalty to the British Government. The whole weight of these
difficulties seemed to fall upon Capt. Brant; and his friends were at one time
anxious not only for his personal safety, but also for his popularity and influ-
ence. But he ably sustained and defended himself, and his conduct was ap-
proved by a full council of the Six Nations at Niagara. About this time he
was engaged in various matters connected with the general policy of the
Indians of -the north and west, which has been mentioned under the title of
his military experience.
A change in the Government of Canada about this time brought new men
and new measures upon the stage of action. Col. J. G. Simcoe was appointed
Lieut-Governor. The new Governor brought out letters of introduction to the
Mohawk chief. They became fast friends, and in all the peace negotiations
with the Western Indians, Capt. Brant became an active participant in the
interests of the Government of Great Britain. The beautiful tract of country
upon the Grand Biver, which had been designated for the settlement of the
Mohawks, attracted the cupidity of white men, as their equally beautiful
country in the Valley of the Mohawk and western New York had done before ;
and Capt. Brant exerted his influence with his people to induce them to exchange
their hunting for agriculture. In furtherance of this idea, he conceived the plan
of making sales and leases of land to skilled white agriculturists. But the
Colonial Government interposed objections, claiming that the donation from
Government was only a right of occupancy and not of sale. Capt. Brant com-
bated this rdea, but was overruled by the officers of the Government, including
his.friend, Gov. Simcoe. Very general dissatisfaction seems to have prevailed
among the Indians in regard to the legal construction of the title to their lands,
and attempts were made to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the difficulty, but
with indifierent succesa Capt. Brant was anxious to encourage and promote
the civilization of his people ; and, in his negotiations with Gen. Haldimand,
stipulated for the erection of a church, which was built upon their lands upon
the Grand Biver, and furnished with a bell and communion service brought
from their former home in the Valley of the Mohawk. This church is believed
to be the first temple erected to the worship of Almighty God in the Province
of Upper Canada*. It is fully mentioned elsewhere in this work. The contro-
versy was long and determined on both sides. It resulted in the confirmation
by thejGovernment of the sales and leases made by Brant, in many cases at
least ; but the Indians were not granted the title to their lands in fee simple.
They could hold and use them, but could not deed them away without the
consent of the Government Capt. Brant continued to be the un3rielding advo-
cate of the lights of his people, as an independent nation, to their lands, to the
end ot his life. His views, and the arguments by which he sustained them.
INDIAN HISTORT. 117
may be gathered {rom an extract of a speech which he delivered at a meeting of
chiefe and warriors at Niagara, before Col. Sheafe, Col. Glaus and others, on
the occasion of a Government proclamation forbidding the sale and leasing of
any of their lands by the Indians. ** In the year 1775," said he, " Lord Dorchester,
then Sir Gny Carleton, at a numerous council, gave us every encouragement, and
requested us to assist in defending their country, and to take an active part in
defending His Majesty's possessions, stating that when the happy day of peace
should arrive, and should we not prove successful in the contest, that he would
put us on the same footing on which we stood previous to joining him. This
flattering promise was pleasing to us, and gave us spirit to embark heartily in
His Majesty's cause. We took it for granted that the word of so great a man,
or any promise of a public nature, would ever be held sacred. We were promised
our lands for our services, and these lands we wore to hold on the same footing
with those we fled from at the commencement of the American war, when we
joined, fought and bled in your cause. Now is published a proclamation forbid-
ding us leasing those very lands that were positively given us in lieu of those
of which we were the sovereigns of the soil, of those lands we have forsaken,
we sold, we leased, and we gave away, when and as often as we saw fit, without
hindrance on the part of your Government, for your Government well knew we
were the lawful sovereigns of the soil, and they had no right to interfere with
us as independent nations." Capt. Brant entered into an extensive corres-
pondence with his friends, men of distinction both in the United States and
England, principally in regard to the title of the lands of his people, and their
settlement and civilization, an object which seemed to lie very near his heart.
Among other vexations which beset his efforts were the machinations of
" Red Jacket," a sort of nondescript chief of the Senecas. This pretender
appears to have been a tool in th^ hands of speculators to undermine the
influence and authority of Thayendanegea, but the scheme failed, and its
instigator appears to have passed into oblivion with his base designs. Brant
was again vindicated, and from that time until his decease he was the undis-
puted head of all the tribes of the Six Nations.
Among the strongest efforts of Brant s life were the exertions made by him
to provide for the Christianizing of the pagan individuals of his people. His
correspondence in relation to the settlement of a missionary at Grand River,
shows that he considered it of great importance to the realization of his
wishes, in regard to the moral and spiritual interests of his people. He was
opposed in this matter, but finally succeeded in procuring the settlement of
the Rev. Davenport Phelps, who had married a daughter of the Eev. Dr.
Wheelock, the early friend and preceptor of Capt. Brant. Mr. Phelps was a
m;aduate of Yale College, and became a missionary of the Episcopal Church in
Western New York. He was ordained in Trinity Church, New York, in
December, 1801, and immediately entered upon the active duties of a
missionary. He had settled in the Province of Upper Canada ; his residence
being upon a farm near Burlington Bay, at the head of Lake Ontario. Captain
Brant urged him to accept a lot of land near the Mohawk village on Grand
River, but he declined the offer, and in 1805 he removed his family from
Canada to Onondaga, N. Y., and subsequently to Geneva, N. Y., where he
died.
8
118 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
From Welds' "Travels through the States of North America," 1795 to
1797, the subjoined extract is made, as illustrating the character of the chief,
in addition to what has already been said : — " When the war broke out the
Mohawks resided on the Mohawk River, in the State of New York, but on
peace being made, they emigrated into Upper Canada, and their principal
village is now situated on the Grand River, which falls into Lake Erie on the
north side, about sixty miles from th% town of Newark, or Niagara. There
Brant at present resides. He has built a comfortable habitation for himself,
and any stranger who visits him may rest assured of being well received, and
of finding a plentiful table well served every day. He has no less than thirty
or forty negroes, who attend to his horses, cultivate his grounds, Ac, &c.
These poor creatures are kept in the greatest subjection, and they dare not
attempt to make their escape, for he has assured them that if they did so,
he would follow them himself though it were to the confines of Georgia, and
would tomahawk them wherever he met them. They know his disposition
too well not to think that he would adhere strictly to his word. - Brant receives
from Government half-pay as captain, besides annual presents, &&, which in
all amounts, it is said, to five hundred pounds per annum. We had no small
curiosity, as you may well imagine, to see this Brant, and we procured letters
of introduction to him from the Governor's secretary, and from dififerent
officers and gentlemen of his acquaintance, with an intention of proceeding
from Newark to his village. Most unluckily, however, on the day oefore that
of our arrival at the town of Newark, he had embarked on board a vessel for
Eangston at the opposite end of the lake. You may judge of Brant's con-
sequence, when I t^l you that a lawyer of Niagara, who crossed Lake Ontario
with us from Kingston, where he had been detained for some time by contrary
winds, informed us the day after our arrival at Niagara, that by his not having
reached that place in time to transact some law business for Mr. Brant, ana
which had consequently been given to another person, he should be the loser
of one hundred pounds at least. Brant's sagacity led him early in life to
discover that the Indians had been made the dupe of every foreign power that
had gained footing in America, and indeed could he have had any doubts on
the subject they would have been removed when he saw the British, after
having demanded and received the assistance of the Indians in the American
war, so unjustly and ungenerously yield up the whole of the Indian territories
east of the Mississippi and south of the lakes, to the people of the United
States, the very enemies, in short, they had made to themselves at the request
of the British. He perceived with regret that the Indians, by espousing the
quarrels of the whites and espousing different interests, were weakening them-
selves, whereas, if they remained aloof, guided by one policy, they would soon
become formidable, and be treated with more respect. He formed the bold
scheme therefore of uniting the Indians together in one grand confederacy,
and for this purpose he sent messengers to difierent chiefs, proposing that a
general meeting should be held of the heads of every tribe to take the subject
into consideration. But certain of the tribes, suspicious of Brant s designs,
and fearful that he was bent upon acquiring power for himself by this measure,
opposed it with all their influence. Brant has, in consequence, become ex-
tremely obnoxious to many of the most warlike, and with such a jealous eye
INDIAN HISTORY. 119
do they now regard him, that it would not be perfectly safe for him to return
to the upper country. Ue has managed the affairs of his own people with
great ability, and leased out their superfluous lands for them for long terms
of years, by which measure a certain annual revenue is insured to the nation.
He wisely judged that it was much better to do so than to suffer the Mohawks,
as many other tribes had done, to sell their possessions by piecemeal, the sums
of money they received for which, however great, would soon be dissipated if
paid to them at once.
Daring the last few years of his life, Brant had many journeys to perform —
to the Lower Province, in the interests of his own people ; to the Upper Lakes,
to keep the chain of friendship with his old confederates from becoming rusty ;
to Canandaigua and elsewhere, upon matters of business or friendship. In 1797
he made another visit to Albany and Philadelphia, striking into New England
by way of New York on his return. While in Philadelphia he was made the
especial guest of the celebrated Colonel Aaron Burr, who had been in corres-
pondence with him previous to his arrival. On leaving Philadelphia for New
York, Colonel Burr gave the chief a letter of introduction to his youthful and
gifted daughter, Tbeodosia, afterwards Mrs. Aliston. For the purpose of show-
ing the estimation in which Brant was held by so distinguished a gentleman
as Aaron Burr undoubtedly was, the letter above mentioned is here given :
* Philadelphia, February 28, 1797. — This will be handed to you by Colonel
Brant, the celebrated Indian chief. I am sure that you and Natalie will be
happy in the opportunity of seeing a man so much renowned He is a man of
education, speaks and writes the English perfectly, and has seen mach of
Europe and America. Receive him with respect and hospitality. He is not one
of ikose Indians who drink rum, but is quite a gentleman ; not one who will
make fine bows, but one who understands and practises what belongs to pro-
priety and good breeding. He has daughters ; if you could think of some little
present to send to one of them — a pair of ear-rings, for example — it would please
him. You may talk to him very freely, and offer to introduce him to your
friend, Mr. Witbeck, of Albany. Vale, et amo, — A. B." Miss Theodosia enter-
tained the forest chief with all the courtesy suggested by her father, as is
evidenced by her letters to him immediately after Brant's departure. His stay
in New York was pleasant enough, as it also was in New England, but in
Albany he was treated rather coolly, and even threatened with violence. On
this account Governor Jay directed a guard to be detailed, which escorted him
through the Mohawk Valley, on his way to Upper Canada.
The correspondence of Brant, after his retirement from military to civil life,
besides that pertaining to the current business which engaged much of his
attention with literary and scientific men, was considerable. His replies to
letters of this class show him to have been a man of deep refiection, independent
thought, and of intelligence above most of the white men of his time, and are
characterized by good common sense. The education of his children seems
never to have been lost sight of amid all the cares and perplexities of his public
life.
The following letter, written by Capt. Brant to James Wheelock, son of the
President of Dartmouth College, his former preceptor in the Moor Charity
School, will best illustrate his viewi on that subject :
120 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
« Niagara, 3rd October, 1800.
" Dear Sir, — Although it is a long time since I have had the pleasure of
seeing you, still I have not forgot there is such a person in being, and now
embrace the kind offer you once made me in offering to take charge of my son
Joseph, whom I certainly at that time should have sent out, had it not been
that there was apparently a jealousy existing between the British and Ameri-
cans ; however, I hope it is not yet too late. I send both my sons Joseph
and Jacob, who I doubt not will be particularly attended to by my friends. I
could wish them to be studiously attended to, not only as to their education,
but likewise to their morals in particular. This is, no doubt, needless mention-
ing, as I know of old, and from personal experience at your seminary, that
these things are paid strict attention to. Let my sons be at what schools
soever, your overseeing them will be highly flattering to me. I should, by
this opportunity, have wrote Mr. John Wheelock on the same subject, but a
hurry of business at this time prevents me. I shall hereafter take the first
opportunity of dropping him a few lines. Until then, please make my best
respects to him, and earnestly solicit his friendship and attention to my boys^
which, be assured of, I shall ever gratefully acknowledge.
" I am, Dear Sir, wishing you and your family health and happiness,
" Your friend and well-wisher,
" To Mr, James Wheelock." " Joseph Brant."
The two boys, Jacob and Joseph, were sent to school at Hanover, and pro-
secuted their studies quite to the satisfaction of their teachers, exhibiting not
only excellent capacity and diligence, but good deportment, and great ami-
ability of character. Unfortunately a diflBculty sprang up between the boys,
which resulted in Joseph leaving the school and returning to his parents.
Jacob remained a while longer, when he too visited home, but subsequently
returned to the school to resume his studies. On the occasion of his son's
return, Captain Brant writes to his friend, Mr. James Wheelock, the follow-
ing letter :
"Niagara, 14th December, 1802.
" My Dear Sir, — I received your very polite and friendly letter by my son
Jacob, and am very much obliged to you, your brother, and all friends, for the
great attentions that have been paid to both of my sons, and to Capt. Dunham
for the gieat care he took of Jacob on the journey.
" My son would have returned to you long before this but for a continued
sickness in the family, which brought Mrs. Brant very low.
" My son Jacob and several of the children are very ill. My son returns to
be under the care of the President, and I sincerely hope he will pay such atten-
tion to his studies as will do credit to himself and be a comfort to his friends.
The horse that Jacob rides out I wish to be got in good order, after he arrives,
and sold, as an attentive scholar has no time to ride about. Mrs. Brant joins
me in the njost affectionate respects to you and Mrs. Wheelock.
" I am. Dear Sir, with great respect,
" Your sincere friend and humble servant,
" Joseph Brant."
" To James Wheelock, Esq." .
INDIAN HISTORY. 121
The following extract from a book entitled, " Travels in the Interior of the
Uninhabited parts of North America, in the years 1791-2, by Alexander Camp-
bell, Captain 42nd Regiment," will serve perhaps to throw some light upon
the every-day life of Captain Brant while he was living at the Mohawk
village, near Briantford. The plain story of Captain Campbell is vigorous
enough to be refreshing, and so frank withal that its truthfulness cannot be
doubted :
• " From Niagara to the Grand River.
"On the 9th of February I set out with a party of gentlemen in two sleds on
an excursion to. the Grand River. Put up for the first night at Squire
McNab's, and next day dined at the house of one Henry, who had only been
here for six years ; put up at night at the house of one Smith, who came from
the colonies two years ago.
•• The land as we came along seemed extremely good — ^heavy timber, consisting
of oak, walnut, chestnut, hickory, maplB sugar wood, ash, pine and a variety of
others, all lofty of their kind, particularly in that space which lies between the
long stretch of precipices called the 'mountain,' and the side of the lake.
This space is from one to four miles broad and from fifty to sixty miles long
from Niagara to Lake Geneva. This mountain begins in the Genesee country
and stretches along until it crosses the River Niagara at the Grand Falls ;
from thence in a serpentine form to the head of the small lake called by the
Indians ' Ouilqueton/ and known to the white people by the name of
* Greneva,' and from thence to the Bay of Toronto, opposite to the Fort of
Niagara on the north side of Lake Ontaiio, a stretch of between two and
three hundred miles long. We stayed that night with Mr. Paisley, who enter-
tained us with the greatest hospitality.
" February 11th. We set out from Mr. Paisley's. For several miles on the
way to the Grand River the lands are so open as to have scarce a sufficiency
of wood for enclosures and the necessary purposes of farming ; but towards
the mountain the wood becomes thick and lofty, as is common in that country,
for several miles along the mountaiiL Towards evening we fell down on a
gentleman's farm, where we stopped to warm ourselves and bait our horses.
No sooner was our repast over than we bade adieu to the family, mounted
our sleds and drove down to the Indian village ; alighted about nightfall at
the house of the celebrated Indian chief and warrior, Captain Joseph Brant.
This renowned warrior is not of any royal or conspicuous blood, but by his
ability in war and political conduct in peace has raised himself to the highest
dignity in his nation, and his alliance is now courted by sovereign and foreign
states. Of this there are recent instances, as he has had within the last
three weeks several private letters and public despatches from Congress
soliciting his attendance at Philadelphia on matters of high importance ; but
after consulting Col. Gordon, commandant of all the British troops in Upper
Canada, he excused himself and declined to accept the invitatioiL He just
now enjoys a pension and captain's half pay from the British Government,
and seemed to keep quite staunch by it, out a person of his great political
talents ought to be carefully looked after ; at the same time, I am convinced
that he bears no good-will to the American States, and seems to be much
122 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
rejoiced at the drubbing their troops got from the Indians on the 4th of last
November, when, by the Indian account, 1300 of them were killed on the spot,
but by the American, only 800, including the wounded ; the former is nearest
the truth and gains most credit here. By comparing the numbers brought ta
the field with those that remained after the action, which is the surest way
to judge, their loss must have exceeded 1600. I saw a muster roll and returns
of some of the companies, and examined if there were any Scotch names
among them, and could find none but one Campbell, who it would appear by
their orderly book was among those that deserted, of whom there were a
great many. My reason for examining this so particularly was that I was
informed the American army was mostly made up of Scotch and Irish
emigrants, to whom Congress promised free lands at the close of the Indian
war in the event they would engage in it. ^Capt. Green, of the 26th regiment,
who held the orderly book, made tne same remark in regard to names, so that
I am happy that tne report was ill-founded. Captain Brant, who is well
acquainted with European manners, received us with much politeness and
hospitality. Here we found two young married ladies with their husbands
on a visit to the family, both of them very fair oomplexioned and well looking
women. But when Mrs. Brant appeared, superbly dressed, in the Indian
fashion, the elegance of her person, grandeur of her looks and deportment, her
large mild black eyes, 8ymmet}:y and harmony of her expressive features,
though much darker in complexion, so far surpassed them as not to admit of
the smallest comparison between the Indian and the fair European ladies. I
could not in her presence so much as look at them without marking the differ-
ence. Her blanket was made up of silk and the finest English cloth, bordered
with a narrow strip of embroidered lace ; her sort of jacket and scanty petti-
coat of the same stuff, which came down only to her knees ; her garters or
leggins, of the finest scarlet, fitted close as a stocking, which showed to
advantage her stout but remarkably fine formed limbs, her moccasins (Indian
shoes) ornamented with silk ribbons and beads. Her person is about five feet
nine or ten inches high, as straight and proportionable as can be, but inclined
to be jolly ^r lusty. She understands but does not speak English. I have
often addressed her in that language, but she always answered in the Indian
tongue. They have a fine family of children. I remarked of one fine -looking
boy, about eight years old, that ne was like his mother. His father said he
was so, and that he was glad of it ; that he was a good scholar and a good
himter ; that he had already shot several pheasants and other birds ; that he
and two other boys of the same age had been lately in the woods with their
gtms ; that they supposed they had found the track of a deer, which they
f oUowed too far, got wet, and became cold ; that, however, young' as they
were, they put up a fire and warmed themselves and returned home ; that
before they arrived their toes were frost-bitten, of which he was then not
quite recovered. I mention this circumstance to show how early the young
Juidians are bred to the chase, and the instance of their early being bred to
war is, that I myself saw a rifie- barrelled gun taken by an Indian boy from
an American, whom he shot dead in the action of the 4th of November last,
and he was allowed to keep it on account of his gallant behaviour. Tea was
on the table when we came in, served up on the handsomest china plate, and
INDIAN HISTORY. 123
every other furniture in proportion. After tea was over we were entertained
with the music of an elegant hand organ on which a young Indian gentleman
and Mr. Clinch played alternately. Supper was served up in the same genteel
style. Our beverages were brandy, port and Madeira wines. Capt. Brant
made several apologies for his not being able to sit up with us so long as we
wished, being a littie out of order ; and we, being fatigued after our journey,
went timeously to rest ; our beds, sheets and English blankets were fine and
comfortable.
" Next day being Sunday, we, the visitors, went to church. The service
was given out by an Indian in the absence of the minister, who was indis-
posed, and I never saw more decorum or attention paid in any church in all
my life. The Indian squaws sung most charmingly, with a musical voice, I
think peculiar to themselves. Dinner was just going on the table in the same
elegant style as the preceding night, when I returned to Gapt. Brant's house,
the servants dressed in their best apparel. Two slaves attended the table, the
one in scarlet; the other in coloured clothes, with silver buckles in their shoes,
and ruffles, and every other part of their apparel in proportion. After dinner,
Capt Brant, that he might not be wanting in doing me the honours of his
nation, directed all the young warriors to assemble in a certain large house, to
show me the war dance, to which we all adjourned about nightfall. Such as
were at home of the Indians appeared, superbly dressed in their most showy
apparel, glittering with silver in all the variety of shapes and forms of their
fancies, which made a dazzling appearance. The pipe of peace, with long
white feathers, and that of war, with red feathers equally long, were exhibited
in their lirst war dance, with shouts and war-whoops resounding to the skies.
" The chief himself held the drum, beat time, and often joined in the song
with a certain cadence to which they kept time. The variety of forms into
which they put their bodies, and the agility with which they changed from
one strange position to another, was really curious to a European eye not
accustomed to such a sight.
'" Several warlike dances were performed which the chief was at particular
pains to explain to me, but still I could not understand, or see any affinity
excepting in the * eagle attack,' which indeed had some resemblance. After the
war dance was over — which took up about two hours, as the whole exhibition
was performed in honour of me, being the only stranger, who they were told
by my fellow travellers meant to publish my travels on my return home, which
they judged of by the notes I took of everything I saw, though in reality I
had no such thing in view at the time — I was desired by Mr. Clinch to make a
speech, and thank them for their handsome performances. As this could not
be declined without giving offence, I was obliged to get up, and told them I
would address them in the Indian language of my own country, and said in
Gaelic, ' That I had fought in many parts of Europe, killed many men, and
now being in America, I did not doubt that I would fight with them yet, par-
ticularly if the Yankees attacked us.' My worthy friend, Capt. McNab,
explained in English my speech, as also did Capt Clinch, in the Indian tongue,
at which they laughed very heartily. No sooner was the war dance over than
they began their own native and civil ones, in which Capt. Brant and I joined.
He placed me between two handsome young squaws, and himself between
124 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
other two. In this way we continued for two hours more, without coming off
the floor, dancing and singing, he himself keeping time all along, which all
the rest followed in the same cadence. The serpentine dance is admirably
curious ; one takes lead representing the head, and the others follow one after
the other joined hand in hand, and before the close of the dance we were put
in all the folds and forms a serpent can be in. After this and every other
dance peculiar to their nation was over, we began Scotch reels, and I was much
surprised to see how neatly they danced them. Their persons are perfectly
formed for such exercise. The men, from the severity of their hunting excur-
sions, are rather thin, but tall and straight, and well proportioned, extremely
agile and supple. The women are much fairer in their complexion, plump and
inclined to be lusty.
" Here we continued until near daylight. I told Capt. Brant that in my coun-
try at all country weddings and frolics it was customary to kiss both before
and after every dance. He said it was a strange though agreeable custom, but
that it would never do here, I suppose owing to the jealousy of the men. I had
bought two gallons of rum to entertain them, and he had ordered six bottles of
Madeira wine from his own house, and would hardly allow the other gentlemen
and myself to take any other liquor. By my being in a manner under the neces-
sity of drinking grog with the young Indians and squaws, I got tipsy, though
I and one young Indian were the only persons present in the least affected.
As for the squaws, I could hardly get them to taste, however warm they might
be with dancing.
" When Captain Brant observed the young Indian was affected with what
he had drank, he requested I should give him no more, taxed him with being
drunk, and said he must turn him out of the company if he did not take care
what he was abo\it.
" On the whole, I do not remember I ever passed a night in my life I enjoyed
more. Everything was new to me and striking in its manner ; the old chief
entered into all the frolics of the young people, in which I was obliged to join.
But the other gentlemen, to whom none of these things were new, looked on,
and only engaged now and then in the reels. After passing the night in this
agreeable manner, and I being a good deal fatigued with drinking and dancing,
we retired to rest.
" Captain Brant showed me a brace of double-barrelled pistols, a curious gun,
and a silver-hilted dagger he had got as presents from noblemen and gentlemen
in England, when he was in that country on an embassy from his own and
other Indian nations. Each of the double-barrelled pistols had but one lock,
the hammer of which was so broad as to cover the two pans and two touch-holes,
so that both shots would go off at once ; and when he had a mind to fire but
one barrel at a time, there was a slip of iron which by a slight touch covered
one of the pans so as that only which was uncovered would go off. The gun
being sufficiently charged, would fire fifteen shots in the space of half a
minute.
" The construction of this curious piece was, as near as I can describe it, as
follows : There was a powder chamber or magazine adjoining to the lock,
which would hold fifteen charges, another cavity for as many balls, and a third
for the priming, and by giving one twist round to a sort of handle on the left
INDIAN HISTORY. 125
hand side opposite the lock, the gun would be loaded from these magazines,
primed and cocked, so that the fifteen charges could be fired, one after another,
in the sx)ace of half a minute, at the same time he might fire but one or
two shote, less or more of them, as he chose. He said there was ^mething of
the work within wrong, so that he could not get it to fire more than eight shots
without stopping. He tried it at a mark, and said it shot very well. Of the
dagger, he said it was the most useful weapon in action he knew — that it was
far better than a tomahawk ; that he was once obliged to strike a man four or
five times with a tomahawk before he killed him, owing to hurry and not
striking him with the fair edge, whereas he never missed with the dagger.
Others told me that he was not over scrupulous or sparing on these occasions.
Another instance he said was that he had seen two Indians with spears or
lances attack a man, one on each side ; that just as they pushed to pierce him
through the body, he seized on the spears, one in each hand ; they tugged and
palled to no purpose, until a third person came up and dispatched him. This
could not be done to a dagger, and of course it was by odds the better weapon.
" ^fr. Clinch, who is a young man of liberal education, served through the
last war in the Indian Department, and was on many expeditions along with
Capt. Brant. They put one another in mind of many strange adventures ;
among others that of having once brought boys and a number of women and
girl« prisoners to Detroit, and so served that whole settlement, which was much
in want of females. The description of the consequences gave me a lively
idea of the rape of the Sabine women by the first settlers of Bome, but the
difference was great, for here the former husbands and lovers had been killed.
A tailor in this place told me he was one of the boys captured on the occasion;
that his eldest brother and father -were killed. The latter, after he had been
taken prisoner and brought a great part of the way, had got fatigued and
could not travel, on which he was tomahawked by the Indians. I cannot see
how the necessities of war can warrant such barbarities to women and children,
independent of the cruelty shown to men and prisoners.
" Another story of Capt. Brant s relating to hunting was, that himself and
another being on an expedition with a large party to the south, and nearly run
out of provisions, and dreading the consequences, had gone a hunting on
horsel)ack ; that they preferred small to large game, as the small would be the
exclusive property of him who killed it, whereas the large game must be
equally divided among the party ; that they rode on throu^ the woods, and
at last fell in with a large flock of turkeys, and galloped after them as fast as
they could, until they obliged the turkeys to take wing and get upon trees,
when the party alighted from their horses and shot seventeen fine turkeys,
with which they returned to camp. They all shot with rifles. Lieut Turner,
of the first regiment continental troops, was the only oflScer taken prisoner by
the Indians in the action of 4th November, 1791, who survived the slaughter
of his countrymen. He said that when he was taken prisoner among the
Indians he was one day permitted to go along with them to the woods on a
hunting party ; that they soon fell in with turkeys. The Indians pursued on
foot as fast as they could, running, falling and hallooing all the time to
frighten the birds, and when they had thus got them on trees, they shot many
of them« Several other persons have said that this was the surest way to get
126 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
%
them. They are so tame, or stupid, when they are in the trees, as to stand
perhaps till the last be killed Whereas, on the ground, they were so quick-
sighted and fleet, that in an instant they were out of sight. An old turkey
cock will outrun any man on the ground. Another method practised is that
of watching them on the ground until they get up to roost in the trees in the
evening, when the sportsmen may shoot on until the last in the flock be
killed
"With Capt. Brant I had a conversation upon religion, introduced by him
indeed, and not by me. He said that we were told everyone that was not a
Christian would go to hell ; if so, what would become of the miserable souls
of many Indians who never heard of Christ ; asked if I believed so, and what
I thought of it ? I frankly told him that if all the saints and priests on earth
were to teU me so, I would not believe them. With such as were instructed
in the Christian religion, and did not conform to its precepts, I did not doubt
but it would fare the worse ; that I believed that it might be so with those of
any other religion ; but I supposed it was a matter of little moment in the
omnipresent eye of the Creator of the universe, whether he was worshipped on
Sundays in the church or on Saturdays in the mosque ; and that the grateful
tribute of everyone would be received however different the mode of offering
it might be ; that everyone has only to account for those actions which he
knew to be wrong at the time of committing them ; but for these, that surely
a time of reckoning would come. He spoke of the Virgin Mary and her
husband Joseph, and even of our Saviour, in a way that induced me to waive
the subject, it, however, showed the difficulty of converting these people
from the early prejudice of education. But his discourses brought to mind a
conversation on traditionary rumours that passed between Ossian, the son of
Fingal, and Patrick, the first Christian missionary he had seen. Before I take
leave of this charming country and the honour done me by the renowned
chief and his warlike tribe of handsome young warriors, all of the Mohawk
nation, I must not omit saying that it appears to me to be the finest country
I have as yet seen ; and by every information I have had none are more so in
all America. The plains are very extensive, with few trees here and there
interspersed, and so thinly scattered as not to require any clearing, and hardly
sufficient for the neces^ries of the farmer. The soil is rich, and a deep clay
mould. The river is about 100 yards broad, and navigable for large bateaux
to Lake Erie, a space of sixty miles, excepting for about two miles, of what
are here called rapids, but in Scotland would be called ' fords,' and in which
the bateaux are easily poled up against any little stream there may be. Abund-
ance of fish are caught here in certain seasons, particularly in the spring, such
as sturgeon, pike, pickerel, maskinonge, and others peculiar to this country ;
and the woods abound with game. The habitations of the Indians are pretty
close together on each side of the river, as far as I could see, with a very few
white people interspersed among them married to squaws, and others of half-
blood, their offspring. The church in the village is elegant, the schoolhouse
commodious, both built by the British Qovemment, which annually orders a
great many presents to be distributed among the natives : ammunition and
warlike stores, of all the necessary kinds; saddles, bridles, kettles, cloth,
blankets, tomahawks with tobacco-pipes in the end of them ; other things and
INDIAN HISTORY. 127
trinkets inniimeTable, provisions and stores, so that they may live, and really
be, as the saying is, ' happy as the day is long.'
"February 13th. When Capt. Brant found that we would be away, he
ordered his sled to be got ready, and after breakfast he and Mrs. Brant accom-
panied us the length of ten or twelve miles to the house of an Indian who had
a kitchen and store room, clean floors and glass windows, crops, and cattle in
proportion, where we put up to warm ourselves. Capt. Brant brought some
wine, rum and cold meat, for the company. After refreshing ourselves, we
bade adieu to our hospitable and renowned host and his elegant squaw, and
bounded on our journey along the banks of the Grand River. The land seemed
extremely good as we came along. The first village of Indians, the next of white
people, and so on alternately, as far as I have been, and for all I know, to the
side of the lake. The Indians in this part of the country seem to be of different
nations, Mohawks, Cherokees, Tuscaroras and Mississaguas. I called at different
villages, or castles as they are called here, and saw the inhabitants had large
quantities of Indian com drying in every house, suspended in the roof, and in
every comer of them. We put up at the house of Mr. Ellis, who treated us very
hospitably.
" February 14th. We went a visiting for several miles down the river side,
and dined at the house of a half-pay officer, a Mr. Young, who had served in
the last war as a lieutenant in the Indian Department, married to a squaw,
sister to one of the chiefs of the Mohawk nation, who succeeded Capt. David.
This gentleman, of Dutch extraction, used me with marked attention and hos-
pitality. Messrs. Clinch, Forsyth and I stayed with him that night playing
whist, cribbage and other games. Here I for the first time played cards with
a squaw. Next morning he conducted us in his own sled the length of Mr.
Ellis's. He told ns that a few days ago a wolf killed a deer on the ice near his
house, and showed us the remains of a tree which, before it was burnt, measured
twenty-eight feet in circumference.
"February 15th. We set out from Mr. Young's; crossed a forest of about
twenty miles without a settlement ; fell in with Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Fatten,
a Mr. Henry and his wife, and some sleds loaded with grain going to mill.
Here we all stopped to bait our horses at the side of a stream or creek ; made a
fire and dined upon such victuals as we brought along with us, in a shade put
up by some trading Indians. I saw the track of a deer as we came along, and
where one of them was dragged on a hand sled or tobogan, on the snow. Mr.
and Mrs. Patton invited our company to their house, to which we readily agreed.
Mrs. Patton is a very well looking, agreeable young lady, and he himself a
good, plain sort of man. We arrived about nightfall, and after refreshing
ourselves with some tea, and some glasses of Port and Madeira wines, the card
tables were produced, on which we played till supper time. In this, and indeed
every place we had been in, we were genteely and hospitably entertained.
•* February 16th. After breakfast we set out from Mr. Andrew Patton's, and
bade adieu to him and his amiable wife. Called at Major Tinbrook's, and dined
at Squire McNab's. Here we were told that a party of pleasure had gone from
Niagara and the barracks, to meet us on our return from the Grand Eiver at a
place called the Cheapway, three miles above the Grand Falls, and have a dance
there that night, which would disappoint them much in the event we did not
128 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
appear. Gapt. McNab insisted on my being there in particular, for reasons he
said I could not well dispense with. I therefore agreed, and my particular
friend, the Squire, was good enough to furnish me with his carriage and a
couple of good horses. This Mr. McNab is a gentleman of genteel and inde-
pendent property — is a justice of the peace, which gives him the title of Squire,
and a member of the Land Board. After dinner, we all set out. I, with Mr.
Johnston Butler, called at his father's (Col. of that name) ; from thence to
Captain Clinch's, on Mississagua Point, opposite Fort Niagara. From thence
again in one carriage to the Chippewa, where we arrived about eight o'clock at
night — two and twenty miles from the place we dined at. Here we drank tea
supped, played cards, and danced until daylight. In the morning I took Mr ,
Forsyth, Lieut. Daniel, and Mackenzie, of the twenty-sixth regiment, into my
sled. Breakfasted at Mr. Binckes' house, who has some saw and grist mills on a
small stream cut out from the side of the great river. Stopped at the Grand
Falls, and saw them for the second time. Called at Mr. Hamilton's, and arrived
in the evening at Niagara.
" March 4th. Before I take leave of Niagara, I must not omit to express my
obligations and acknowledgments to my very particular friends Messrs. McNab,
Mr. Hamilton and family, Mr. Dickson, merchant. Poets Moore and Kerr,
Messrs. Crooks and Forsyth, Mr. Clark, storekeeper, Mr. Farquharson, commis-
sary ; Mr. Johnson, Indian interpreter, Mr. Clinch, Captain Law, and his son
and young Mr. Alexander McNab. Did I particularize every mark of atten-
tion and hospitality of these gentlemen to strangers which I myself experienced
to a very high degree, and how many happy nights I spent with them in that
place at assemblies, entertainments and card parties, I should make a diffuse
narration of it ; but I therefore suffice to say that I am extremely sensible of
their politeness, and will always make grateful acknowledgments. Near the
village of New Johnstone is the seat of the late Sir William Johnson, Baronet,
of whom the inhabitants speak to this day with the highest gratitude and
respect. He died a year or two before the breaking out of the war. He was
a man of unbounded pc^er in this country. Affability and generosity were his
distinguishing qualities. He had a large property in land, and was to the Indians,
as well as to the Scotch inhabitants, a father and a friend. To him they looked
up for relief in all their distress and wants. He kept a squaw, now called 'Old
Miss MoUy,' sister to the famous Captain Joseph Brant, by whom he had several
children, male and female, now in life ; to each of whom he bequeathed at his
death £1,500, besides leaving a large sum to the mother, who now lives at
Niagara.
" It is said the sons are somewhat wild, and savour a little of the Indian ; but
that the daughters have the mild dispositions and inanners of the Europeans.
One of them is well married. I have often been in her house and been very
genteely entertained. She is the best dancer I think I have ever seea perform.
Her husband is a particular friend and countryman of my own, is surgeon to
the Indian Department in the District of Nossa, with a salary of about £200
a year from the Government. To cross the breed of an)*^ species of creatures is
deemed an advantage, but I am convinced it can be to none more than the
human species. I do not remember to have seen an instance where a white
man and an Indian woman did not produce handsome children. Thousands of
^v
INDIAN HISTORY. 129
examples of tbis kind might be given. The famous and handsome Capt. David
BJid toe present Mr. Brant afiford striking instances of this kind, and of whom
I have spoken in another place. The greatest warriors and most conspicuous
characters among the southern Indians now at war with the Americans are half
blood. They retain the expressive features, the fine large black eyes, hair and
eyebrows of the Indians, with a much fairer tint of skin, which are easily dis-
cernible even to the third generation, if not longer. Sir William lived in great
splendour in this place. In his famQy were slaughtered 100 fat hogs and 24
oxen annually, and everything else was in proportion. Sir William was wont
to say that he was born in Ireland, but that his father when a boy came from
Glencoe in Scotland, and that he deemed himself of that country. The
Johnsons, or, as they were called in Gaelic language, McDons of Glencoe, now
McDonalds, were' anciently a very warlike race, and in times of barbarism not
the least so of their neighbours ; but it is somewhat singular that scarcely one
of them who left his country in early life, and issued out into the world to push
his fortunes, but made a distinguished figure in it. Their vein of poetry was
such that any one of them who could not compose extempore in rhyme was
deemed a by-leap, but that practice, which was then much in use and shone
very conspicuous in them, is now discontinued, and their genius in that line is
no better than others. Sir William had the distribution of the King's gratui-
ties and stores to the Indians, and his manner of distributing them was very
different from what is now practised. When an Indian came for his presents
he was carried into the store and allowed to choose for himself, which pleased
him mightily, and he often went off with a few trinkets of little value. At pre-
sent I have seen saddles, bridles, &c., given to Indians who had never crossed
a horse, and many other things given in the same way of as little utility to
them ; and the li];^t use the possessors made of them was to dispose of them to
the first bidder at half value. Sir William was so remarkably beloved, that if
he had been m life when the war broke out it was supposed the whole inhabit-
ants of the back parts of the Province of New York would have risen in arms
along with him. His son. Sir John, was more distant, and not so affable in his
manners, and of course not so well liked. However, the greatest part of the
young Scotch settlers, besides some Irish and Germans, adhered to his fortunes ;
and he raised a corps of the smartest, liveliest, and the most useful troops in
the British service. Their sufferings were very great ; they were often obliged to
eat horses, dogs and cats, and yet were never heard to complain, if they could
distress their enemies. They and the Indians went hand in hand : the former
led on by a son of Colonel Butler, a gallant young officer, who was killed in the
war, and the latter by the intrepid Captain Brant. This chosen corps, this
band of brothers, was rarely known to be worsted in any skirmish or action,
though often obliged to retire and betake themselves to the wilderness when
superior forces came against them. Sir John's corps and Butler's Rangers w^ere
very distressing to the back settlers. Their advances and retreats were equally
sudden and astonishing, and to this day the Americans say they might as easily
have found a parcel of wolves in the woods as them if once they entered it.
That the first notice of their approach was them in sight, and of their retreat,
their being out of reach. These two bodies were chiefly made up of Indians
and Scotch Highlanders, who adhered closely to their country's cause, and such
130 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of them as survived the war are now settled in Upper Canada. I have known
many of them, both officers and soldiers, and the account they gave of the fatigue
and sufferings they underwent is hardly credible, were it not confirmed by one
and all of them."
The Brant Genealogy. — Domestic Relations.
As has been explained at some length in another part of this section. Brant's
origin is not quite clear ; yet from all the facts and circumstances which are
known, it is believed to be fair to assert that he was a lineal descendant of one
of the regularly acknowledged chieftains of his people. According to this
understanding, the genealogical record of Brant would assume the following
order : —
'•' Tehowaghwengaraghkin,'* a Mohawk of the Wolf tribe, whose home
was at Canajoharie, the central castle of the Mohawks. This chief was
descended from one of the sachems who visited England in 1710. He is
supposed to have died while on a temporary sojourn in the west, probably in
Ohio. The children of Tehowaghwengaraghkin were : 1. A son, whose name is
unknown. 2. A son, name unknown. 3. Joseph Thayendanegea, called
Joseph Brant, from Nickus Brant, whom his mother took for a second husband,
after the death of No. 1. Thayendanegea married first, Margaret, an Indian
woman, who died probably in 1771. His second wife was Susanna, a half-
sister to Margaret. He was united with this woman by a German cleigyman,
in the winter of 1772-3. Susanna died shortly after marriage, without issue.
In the winter of 1780, while present at the wedding of Miss Moore and Captain
Wm. Powell, which took place at Fort Niagara, he was regularly wedded to
his third wife, Catherine, with whom he had been living according to the
Indian fashion for §ome time previous. 4. Molly, known in history as "Miss
Molly," and who became the second wife of Sir William Johnson, the com-
mandant of H. B. M. forces in the Mohawk country, and also the Superintend-
ent of Indian Affairs in Canada.
The children of Captain Joseph Brant were : 1. Isaac^ bom probably at
Canajoharie, married, and died at Burlington Heights in 1802, from the eliects
of a wound received at the hands of his &ther, whose life he had attempted to
take while in a fit of drunken frenzy. 2. Christina, bom at Canajoharie,
married, and died. The above children were by Brant's first wife, Margaret.
3. Joseph, Jr., died in 1830. 4. Jacob, died in 1846. 5. John, was never
married ; died in 1832. 6. Margaret, married Powles, and died in 1848.
7. Catherine, married Peter John, and died at Wellington Square, January
31st, 1867. 8. Mary, married Seth Hill. 9. Elizabeth, married William John-
son Kerr, Esq., a grandson of Sir William Johnson, The marriage of this lady
took place at the Mohawk church in 1828 ; she died at Wellington Square in
April, 1844.
The children of Isaac Brant were : 1. Isaac, Jr. ; 2. Margaret ; 3. Ellen,
married Lotteridge.
The children of Christina were four sons and three daughters ; one of the
latter was Mary, who married Joseph Sawyer, deceased, late chief of the ** New
Credit," or Mississagua band of Chippewas.
INDIAN HISTORY. 131
Joseph, Jr., was the father of Catherine, who married Aaron HilL
Jacob Brant was the father of — 1. John ; 2. Squire ; 3. Christina, married the
late John Jones ; 4. Jacob, Jr., married Mary Jones ; 5. Peter; and 6. Charlotte,
married Peter Smith.
Margaret (Powles) Brant was the mother of several children, whose individual
history has not been traced.
Catherine (Jones) Brant had three children, whose history is unknown.
Mary (Hill) Brant was the mother of one child, living in 1873.
Elizabeth (Ken) Brant had four children. Their history has not been traced.
The foregoing family record has been arranged from such materials as were
at hand, and is not claimed to be ix)mplete ; indeed, it would be difficult to
coUect all the details necessary for an unbroken chain of geneological history,
especially as few family records have been preserved.
Isaac, the eldest ol Brant's children, was partly educated at a school in the
Mohawk Valley, and his education was completed at Niagara. His disposi-
tion, bad from his youth, grew worse as he increased in years, and was not
improved by his associations at the military post of Niagara after the War of
the Revolution. He fell into the habit of drinking while at this post, and
when in his cups was a dangerous man. Thayendanegea made every effort
to reclaim his wayward son, but all to little purpose. He committed several
outrages of a grave nature, among which was the murder, in cold blood, of a
harness maker named Lowell, at the Mohawk village. In 1795 there was an
assemblage of the Indians at Burlington Heights for the purpose of receiving
the annual bounty from the Government. Upon this occasion Isaac was
drunk as usual, and uttered many threats against his father. Captain Brant
had taken tea with a friend, after which he retired to a small inn for the night ;
to this inn Isaac followed his father and made an assault upon him, during
which both were wounded. Those who were standing by immediately separated
them, and the frenzied son was taken care of, and his wound, which was in the
scalp, was dressed. The injury was not at all serious, but in his drunken craze
Isaac persisted in tearing off the dressings, and on the ninth day he died from
hemorrhage, according to some accounts, or brain fever, as stated by others.
Capt. Brant immediately surrendered himself to the civil authorities, and
resigned his commission, which he still hfeld in the British service. It was not
accepted, however. A council of the principal sachems and warriors was held ;
all the facts and circumstances were considered with great deliberation, when
the following certificate of opinion was signed unanimously, and a copy delivered
to Capt. Brant : " Brother, — ^We have heard and considered your case ; we
sympathize with you. Tou are bereaved of a beloved son. But that son raised
his parricidal hand against the kindest of fathers. His death was occasioned by
his own crime. With one voice we acquit yoti of all blame. We tender you
our hearty condolence, and may the Great Spirit above bestow upon you conso-
lation and comfort under your affliction." This circumstance has been related
in various ways ; and by those who were inclined to dislike Brant it was
peddled about as conclusive evidence of the badness of his character, when the
truth of the matter was he acted in self-defence, and that in a comparatively
moderate manner.
None of the sons of Capt. Brant seem to have achieved distinction, if we
except John, the youngest, who succeeded to his father's title. Isaac Brant left
132 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
a widow and two children, one of whom, Tsaac, Jr., was a counterpart of his
father. He served with some distinction in the War of 1812-14, but was killed
in a drunken frolic by a blow with a gun barrel, inflicted, as was supposed, by
a white man. Joseph, Jr., and Jacob were sent to Dartmouth College, under
the tutorship of John Wheelock, who succeeded the venerable President of early
times. They made some progress in their studies, but did not complete the
regular course of instruction.
Capt. Brant was a " half-pay '' officer in the British army, with the rank of
captain, though he was called " colonel " by many who addressed him, after
the close of the Revolutionary War ; in fact, he appears to have been generally
so called during the latter years of his life. He was inclined to dress in the
Indian fashion, or in a semi-civilized style ; at times this seems to have degen-
erated into something bordering on negligence. It is said that Brant upon one
occasion waited upon Lord Dorchester, then Governor of Canada, who promptly
reminded him that unless he assumed the uniform of a captain, which rank he
held, he (Dorchester) would cause his pay to be stopped. It is added that he
thereupon changed his style of dress, and habitually wore the uniform of an
army officer.
The Crown made donations of lands, and in some cases, money, to those who
had served in the Revolutionary War, especially to those who had suffered
losses of property on the other side of the lakes. Brant was given a valuable
tract of land, at the head of Lake Ontario, occupying a fine commanding emi-
nence, and affording an extensive view of the lake and surrounding country:
this place is now called Wellington Square. A few years before his death.
Captain Joseph Brant built a fine dwelling on this tract of land Here he
removed with his family, and here he closed his extraordinary and eventful
life. Until his removal to Wellington Square, Captain Brant's principal resi-
dence was at the Mohawk village, in what is now Brant County.
The 24th day of November, 1807, is the date which marks the ending of his
great career. For more than half a century he had been active in the fields
of conflict and diplomacy, during which time he proved himself to be far in
advance of any other representative of his race in all that goes to constitute
the fabric of Christian civilization. He was a firm adherent to the faith and
doctrines of the Episcopal Church at the time of his decease, and during his
last 'illness, which was painful, he manifested that fortitude and resignation
which characterizes the true Christian. The interests of his people, which
were ever uppermost in his mind, while in the fullness of health and strength,
seemed to be foremost in his thoughts to the end. His last words were, " Have
pity upon the poor Indians : if you can get any influence with the great,
endeavour to do them all the good you can." With these sentiments para-
mount in his thoughts, Joseph Thayendanegea died. His remains were brought
to the burying grounds which surround the old Mohawk church, and there
interred among those of many of his kindred.
Brant a Freemason.
There is every reason to suppose that Captain Brant was, at an early period
of his life probably, made a member of tliis ancient fraternity. Neither
L
INDLiN HISTOKY. 133
record nor tradition informs us concerning the particular lodge to which he
belonged, or the number of degrees which he received ; that he was at least a
master mason is probable from the incidental evidence which has floated down
to the present generation. In those early days it was not uncommon for such
officers and solaiers as were in good standing with their respective lodges at
home, to open and work temporary or " field " lodges while absent on long and
distant campaigns ; this was one source of social pastime and amusement to
those who were isolated from society for months and even years at a time.
One report has it that Brant was initiated at a "military'' lodge at Niagara, but
this hardly agrees with certain well known incidents in his career. It is more
than prolMible that he was made a mason in the Mohawk River country either
by a r^;ular lodge of master masons, or by one of those nomadic bodies
already mentioned. Mrs. Carey, in her pamphlet of 1873, gives the following :
'*The late Jonathan Maynard, Esq., formerly a member of the Senate of
Massachusetts, was saved by Brant, who discovered the symbols of free-
masonry upon the prisoner's arms after the Indians had partially stripped him
to put him to death. Mr. Maynard lived to an advanced old age, an upright
and faithful magistrate.''
In the account of the battle of the Cedars, mention has been made of the
capture of Captain McKinstry ; the subjoined account was reserved for this
section. Among the prisoners captured at the battle of the Cedars was Captain
John McKinstry, who commanded a company on that occasion. His command
was sharply engaged with a body of Indians, before whom his troops were
several times compelled to retii-e. Rallying, however, with spirit, the Indians
Were frequently driven back in turn. The Americans were finally overpowered
and compelled to surrender. Captain McKinstry, being wounded, fell by the
side of a tree and was there taken prisoner. He afterwards learned that he
had been marked as a \ictim by the Indians, who had actually made the usual
preparations for putting him to death by the torture of fire ; and that he was
rescued by the personal exertions of Captain Brant, who in connection with
some humane fiaglish oflicers made up a purse and purchased an ox, which the
Indians roasted for their carousal, instead of the gallant prisoner. Captain
McKinstry was treated with kindness while a prisoner, and contracted an inti-
macy with Brant which continued until the chieftain's death. Brant never visited
the Hutlson after the Revolution without spending a few days with Colonel
McKinstry at Livingstone Manor ; and at the time of his last visit, about 1805,
he with his friend attended a lodge of freemasons, which met in the city of
Hudson. Brant's presence at this meeting of the fraternity attracted great
attention. Tradition has it that Brant was buried with masonic honors, but
there is no very reliable evidence that such was the case. Masonic lodges
were not common in Upper Canada in 1807, and the few which were in exist-
ence were far distant from the Mohawk chm-ch, and would hardly have
undertaken a long journey over bad roads unless for some gi-eat occasion,
which would surely have left a record which some one of the many writers
about Brant would have found long ere this.
John Brant (Ahyouwaeghs).
According to the unwritten law of the Mohawks, the inheritance descends
through the female line exclusivelv ; as a consequence, the chieftainship does
9
134* HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
not d^cend to the eldest male, but the eldest female, in what may be called the
royal line, nominates one of her sons or other -descendants, and he thereby
becomes chief. If the choice which she makes does not fall upon her own son^
the grandson whom she invests must be the child of her daughter. The widow
of Tliayendanegea was the eldest daughter of the head chief of the Turtle
tribe — ^the first in rank among the Mohawks. In her own right, therefore, on
the decease of her husband, she stood at the head of the Iroquois Confederacy,
alone clothed with the power to designate the succeeding chieftain. The official
title of the principal chief of the Six Nations is Tekar^ogea, to which station,
John, the fourth and youngest son of Captain Joseph Brant^ was appointed.
On the removal of Captain Brant to Wellington Square, he had adopted the
English mode of Uving. Mrs. Brant, however, preferred the customs of her
own race, and soon after the death of her husband she returned to the Mohawk
village, on. Grand River, where she ever afterwards resided. John Brant was
bom at the Mohawk village, on the 27th of September, 1794 He received a
good English education at Ancaster and Niagara, under the tuition of Mr.
Sichard Cockrel ; but through life he improved his mind greatly by the study
of the best English authors, by associations and by travel. His manners were
those of an accomplished gentleman. When the War of 1812-15, between
England and the United States, broke out, the Mohawks, true to their ancient
faith, espoused the cause of the former, and the young Chief Tekarihogea took
the field with his warriors. His first effort was at the little of Queeuston, where
Colonel (afterwards General) Scott, of the American regulars, was made a pris-
oner of war. John Brant and another Indian, named Captain Jacobs, attempted
to capture Scott, aud even went so far as to attempt a personal inspection of
him while he was detained at the headquarters of the British General, Sheaffe ;
this insolence was promptly resented by Colonel Scott, who seized a heavy
sword, and promptly assumed the defensive. At this juncture Colonel Coffin,
with an armed guard, appeared upon the scene, and the Indians vanished, much
to the satisfaction of all concerned, especially General Sheaffe, who was anxious
to render every courtesy to his captives in arms. John Brant served with great
credit through the campaigns of Niagara. He was at Fort George, Beaver
Dams, Lundy's Lane, Chippewa, Fort Erie, and a score of other minor move-
ments, in all of which he behaved with valour. After the declaration of peace
he settled down at Wellington Square, and became noted for his hospitality in
the keeping of the " Brant House," as the mansion which his father had estab-
lished was called. In this he was ably assisted by his youthful sister Eliza-
beth, who won the esteem of all who were fortunate enough to find themselves
guests under this friendly roof.
In 1819, certain articles appeared in the ChHstian Recovdei' (Kingston),
which were offensive to the descendants of Thayendanegea ; the young chief
was prompt to rally in the support of his father's good name. This duty
brought him out in good light, and displayed much ability on his part in the
conducting of correspondence, and the preparation of letters and papers to
sustain his position and the integrity of his family. His efforts were crowned
with success, and the ofiensive statements were clearly shown to have ariaea
from mistakes and misrepresentations. The difficulties between the Canadian
Gcvemment and the Mohawks, respecting the titles to the lands of the latter.
INDIAN HISTORY. 135
had not been adjusted by the efforts of Thayendanegea, Accordingly, John
Brant was sent to England to make one more appeal to the Crown in behalf
of his people. The visit was made in 1821, and continued for some time,
during which he obtained an interview with the author of ''Gertrade of
Wyoming," and obtained a modified retraction of certain expressions in that
oelebrat^ poem. These have been referred to at some length under a previous
heading ; and in addition, the following lengthy epistle was developed. Inas-
much as Hxe letter has an important bearing upon the character of the elder
Brant, as well as the faithful services of his son, it is given entire, or essen-
tially so at least, as the few omitted lines are of no value in the matter. This
letter is not usually published with the trade editions of CampbeU s poems,
and is somewhat rare, although it is to be found in the appendix to the second
volume of Stone s work, and in the " Annals of Tryon County," New York.
" London, January 20th, 1822.
" SiB, — ^Ten days ago I was not aware that such a person existed as the son
of the Indian leader. Brant, who is mentioned in my poem, ' Gertrude of
Wyoming.' Last week, however, Mr. S. Bannister, of Lincoln's Inn, called to
inform me of your being in London, and of your having documents in your
possession which he believed would change my opinion of your father's memo-
ry, and induce me to do it justice. Mr. Bannister distinctly assured me that
no declaration of my sentiments on the subject was desired but such as should
spontaneously flow from my own judgment of the papers that were to be sub-
mitted to mck I could not be deaf to such an appeal. It was my duty to
inspect the justification of a man whose memory I had reprobated, and I felt
a satisfaction at the prospect of his character being redressed, which was not
likely to have been felt by one who had willingly wronged it. As far as any
intention to wound the feelings of the living was concerned, I really knew not,
when I wrote the poem, that the son and daughter of an Indian chief were
ever likely to peruse it, or be affected by its contents ; and I have observed
most persons to whom I have mentioned the circumstance of your appeal to
me, smile with the same suiprise which I experienced on first receiving it.
With regard to your father's character, I took it as I found it in popular
history. Among the documents in his favour, I own that you have shown me
one which I regret that I never saw before, though I might have seen it, viz., the
Dnke of Bochefoucault's honourable mention of the chief in his travels. With-
out meaning, however, in the least to invalidate that nobleman's respectable
authority, I must say that even if I had met with it, it would have still offered
only a general and presumptive vindication of your father, and not such a
specific one as I now recognize. On the other hand, judge how naturally I
adopted accusations against him which had stood in the ' Annual Register ' of
1779, as far as I know, uncontradicted, for thirty years. A number oi authors
had repeated them with a confidence which beguiled at least my suspicion, and
I believe that of the public at large. Among these authors were Gordon,
Ramsay, Marshall, Belsham, and Weld. The most of them, you may tell me,
perhaps, wrote with zeal against the American war. Well, but Mr. John
Adolphus was never suspected of any such zeal, and yet he had said in his ' His-
tory of England,' &c. (Vol. III., p. 110), ' a force of sixteen hundred savages and
136 HISTORY OF BEANT COUNTY,
Americans in disguise, headed by an Indian, Col. Bntier, and a half Indian of
extraordinary ferocity, named Brant, lulling the fears of the inhabitants (of
Wyoming) by treachery, suddenly possessed themselves of two forts, and
massacred the garrisoD.'
" He says farther, 'that all were involved in unsparing slaughter, and that
«ven the devices of torment were exhausted.' He possesse<l, if I possessed
them, the means of consulting better authorities ; yet he has never, to my
knowledge, made any atonement to yonr father's memorj'. When your Cana-
dian friends, therefore, call me to trial, for. having, defamed the warrior . Brant.
I beg that Mr. John Adolphus may be also included in the summons. And,
after his own defence and acquittal, I think he is bound, having been one of
my historical raisleaders, to stand up as my gratuitous counsel, and say,
' Gentlemen, you must acquit my client, for he has only fallen into an error
which even my judgment could not escape.' In short, I imbibed my conception
of* your father from accounts of him that were published when I was scarcely
out of ray cradle, and if there were any public, direct and specific challenge to
those accounts in England ten years ago, I am yet to learn where they existed.
I rose from perusing the papers you submitted to me certainly with an altered
impression of his character. I find that the unfavourable accounts of him
weje erroneous, even on points not immediately connected with his reputation.
It turns out, for instance, that he was a Mohawk Indian, of unmixe i parentage.
This circumstance, however, ought not to be overlooked in estimating the
merits of his attainments. He spoke and wrote our language with force and
facility, and had enlarged views of the union and policy of the» Indian tribes.
A gentleman who had been in America, and from whom I sought information
respecting him in consequence of your interesting message, told me that, though
he could not pretend to appreciate his character entirely, he had been struck
with the iKLivete and eloquence of his conversation. They had talked of
music, and Brant said, ' I like the harpsichord well, and the organ still better ;
but I like the drum and trumpet best of all, for they make my heart beat
quick.' This gentleman also described to me the enthusiasm with which he
spoke of written records. Brant projected at that time to have written a
history of the Six Nations. The genius of history should be rather partial
to such a man Lastly, you affirm that he was not within manv
miles of the spot when the battle which decided the fate of Wyoming tool;
place, and from yout offer^f reference to living witnesses, I cannot but admit the
assertion. Had I learned all this of your father when I was writing my poem, he
t have tigured in it as the hero of mischief. I cannot indeed answer by
on what the writers who have either to retract or defend what they
; said about him may have to allege : I can only say that my own
bout him is changed. I am now inclined exceedingly to doubt Mr.
lecdote, and for this reason : Brant was not only trusted, consulted
iguished by several eminent British officers in America, but person-
-ed by them. Now I could conceive men in power, for de^sible
E state politics, to have officially trusted, and even publicly distiu-
t courts or levees, an active or sagacious Indian chief, of whose private
they might nevertheless still entertain a very indifferent opinion ;
mot imagine high minded and high bred British officers forming
I and fond friendship for a man of ferocious character.
INDIAN HISTORY. 13T
" It comes within my express knowledge that the late Gen. Sir Charles
Stewart, fourth son of the Eiarl of Bute, the father of our present Ambassador
at Paris, the officer who took Minorca, and Calvi, and who commanded our
army in Portugal, knew your father in America, often slept under the same
tent with him, and had the warmest regard for him. It seems but charity to
suppose the man who attracted the esteem of Lord Rawdon and Gen. Stewart,
to have possessed amiable qualities, so that I believe you when you affirm
that he was as merciful as brave. And now I leave tlie . world to judge
whether the change of opinion with which I am touched arises from false
delicacy and flexibility of mind, or from a sense of honour and justice. Here,
properly speaking, ends my reckoning with you about your father's memory;
but as the Canadian newspapers have made some remarks upon the subject of
Wyoming with which I cannot fully coincide, and as this letter will probably
be read in Canada, I cannot conclude it without a few more words, in case my
silence would seem to admit of propositions which are ratl^r beyond the
stretch of my creed. I will not, however, give any plain truths which I have
to otter to the Canadian writers the slightest seasonings of bitterness, for they
have alluded to me, on the whole, in a friendly and liberal tone. But when
they regret my departure from historical truth, I join in their regret only in
as far as I have unconsciously misunderstood the character of Brant, and the
share of the Indians m the transaction, which I have now reason to suspect
was much less than that of the white men. In other circumstances, I took
the liberty of a versifier to run away from fact into fancy, like a school-boy
who never dreams that he is a truant when he rambles on a holiday from
school It seems, however, that I falsely represented Wyoming to have been
a terrestrial paradise. It was not so, say the Canadian papers, because it con-
tained a great number of Tories ; and undoubtedly that cause goes far to
account for the fact Earthly paradises, however, are but earthly- things, and
'Tempe' and 'Arcadia' may have had their drawbacks on happiness as well as
Wyoming. I must nevertheless still believe that it was a nourishing colony,
and that its destruction furnished a just warning to human beings against war
and revenge. But the whole catastrophe is affirmed in a Canadian newspaper
to have been nothing more than a fair battle. If this be a fact, let accredited
signatures come forward to attest it, and vindicate the innocence and honour-
ableness of the whole transaction, as your father's character has been vindicated.
An error about him by no means proves the whole account of the business to
be a fiction. Who would not wish its atrocities disproved ? But who can
think it disproved by a single defender who writes anonymously, and without
definable weight or authority. In another part of the Canadian newspapers
mv theme has been regretted as dishonotirable to England. Then it was, at
all events, no fable. How far wite the truth dishonourable to England?
American settlers, and not Englishmen, were chiefly the white men, calling
themselves Christians, who were engaged in this aflair. It will be remem-
bered, perhaps, that they caUed themselves " Loyalists." But, for heaven'a
sake, let not English loyalty be dragged down to {^liate atrocities, or English
delicacy be invoked to conceal them. I mav be told that England permitted
the war, and was therefore responsible for its occurrences. Not surely,
universally, nor directly. I should be unwilling to make even Lord North's
138 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Administration answerable for all the actions of Butler's Rangers, and I
should be still more sorry to make all England amenable either for Lord
North's Administration or for Butler's Rangers. Was the American war a
unanimous and heartfelt war of the people ? Were the best patriots and the
brightest luminaries of our Senate for or against it ? Chatham declared that
if America fell she would fall like the strong man — that she would embrace
the pillars of our constitution, and perish beneath the ruins. Burke and Fox
and Barre kindled even the breasts of St Stephen s chapel against it ; and
William Pitt pronounced it war a£:ainst the sacred cause of Liberty. If so,
the loss of our colonies was a blessing compared with the triumph of those
principles that wonld hflTve brought Washington home in chains. If Chatham
and Pitt were our friends in denouncing the injustice of this war, then Wash-
ington was only nominally our foe for resisting it. ....
** If my Canadian critic alleges that a poet may not blame the actions of his
country, I meet his allegations and deny it. No doubt a poet ought not
forever to harp and carp upon the faults of his country, but he may be her
moral censor, and he must not be her parasite. If an English poet under
Edward III. had only dared to leave one generous line of commiseration to the
memory of Sir William Wallace, how much he would have raised our estima-
tion of the moral character of the age. The twentieth century will not think
the worse of the nineteenth for regretting the American war. I know the
slender importance of my own works. I am contending, however, against a
false principle of delicacy that would degi-ade poetry itself if it were adopted,
but it will never be adopted. I therefore regret nothing in the historical
allusions of my poem except the mistake about your father. Nor, thdUgh I
have spoken freely of American affairs, do I mean to deny that your native
tribes may have had a just cause of quarrel with the American colonists. And
I regard it as a mark of their gratitude that they adhered to the royal
cause
" I could say much of European injustice toward your tribes, but in spite of
all that I could say, I must still deplore the event of Christians having adopted
their mode of warfare ; and, as circumstances then stood, of their having invoked
their alliance. If the Indians thirsted for vengeance on the colonists, that should
have been the very circumstance to deter us from blending their arms with
ours.
" I trust you will understand this declaration to be made in the spirit of
frankness, and not of mean and. inhospitable arrogance. If I were to speak to
you in that spirit, how easily and how truly could you tell me that the American
Indians have departed faster from their old practices of warfare than Christians
have departed from their habits of religious persecution! If I were to preach to
you about European humanity, you might ask me how long the ashes of the
inquisition have been cold, and whether the slave-trade be yet abolished ? You
might demand how many — no, how few generations have elapsed since our old
women were burned for imaginary commune with the devil, and whether the
houses are not yet standing from which our great-grandmothers may have looked
upon the hurdles passing to the place of execution, whilst they blessed them-
selves that they were not witches ? I have been
thus special in addressing you, from a wish to vindicate my own consistency, as
INDIAN HISTOKY. 139
well as to do justice to you in your present circumstances, which are peculiarly
and publicly interesting. The chief of an aboriginal tribe now settled under
tiie protection of our Sovereign in Canada, you are anxioas to lead on your
people in a train of civilization that is already begun. It is impossible that
the British community should not be touched with regard for an Indian stranger
of respectable private character, possessing such useful and honourable views.
Trusting that you will amply succeed in them, and long live to promote improve-
ment and happiness amidst the residue of your ancient race,
" I remain your sincere well-wisher,
"Thomas Campbell."
During his stay in London he appears to have improved every opportunity
for observing and learning the habits of English society. Among the entries in
his diary was the following, not very complimentary to the ladies whom he
met: " Thursday evening May 16th, 1822.— I went to Mr. C. A. Tulk's, M,P.,
party to hear a little music. There were twenty-two ladies— one only pretty ;
Casweighten, said to be the best violin player in Europe ; and Solly, celebrated
for the guitar and piano. I met a gentleman well acquainted with my father,
formerly of the Queen's Rangers."
The War of 1812 had a most unhappy effect upon the Mohawks. It diverted
their attention from the usual employments of peace, and seriously affected the
establishment of schools and churches. John Brant procured an appropriation
in 1822 from the New England Corporation for the Civilization of Indians, which
body had been chartered as far back as 1662. After his return to Grand Eiver,
the young chief devoted much of his eneigy to the application of this fund to
purposes for which it was designed. His letters and papers show that he was
deeply interested in the work of progress for his people. Many of these epistles
are full of the spiiit of broad philanthropy, and would do credit to any repre-
sentative of the white race. So eminently were these services performed and
appreciated, that the young chief was made tl^e recipient of a memento from
the mani^ers of the ancient association above mentioned. This gift was a
finely-wrought cup of sterling silver, which bore the following inscription :
" Presented by the New England Corporation, established in London,
by Charter, A.D. 1662, for the Civilization of the Indians,
To JOHN BRANT, Esq.,
AHYOUWAEGHS,
One of the Chiefs of the Mohawk Nation, in acknowledgment of his
eminent services in promoting the objects of the Corporation.
A.D. 1829."
In the year 1827 the Earl of Dalhousie, then Commander-in-chief of the
British American Provinces, appointed Brant to the rank of captain, and Super-
intendent of the Six Nations. It was early in the same year (1827) that
140 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTr. ^
certain American newspapers took the liberty to publish his name as one
who had been indirectly implicated with the band of over zealous masons^
who were charged with the abduction of William Moigan in the year previous.
It appears that the first plan was to seize Morgan and convey him out of the
country ; but no definite plan of procedure was agreed upon, and having
abducted their victim the problem was what to do with him. One idea seems
to have been to enlist Morgan as a seamdn on board of a British man-of-war at
Quebec ; another plan was to get the Indians to transport the captive to the
far North- West and leave him with the fur-traders. This latter arrangement
was based upon the supposition that John Brant, like his father, was a free-
mason, and being in a convenient position and in a foreign country, and also in
full connection with the Indians of the west and north, it was concluded that
he would be an efficient tool for the execution of their purpose. The sugges-
tion that the Mohawk chief was or might have been available for this business,
became public, and worked no small amount of moitification to himself and his
friends. The imputation was repelled with a spirit becoming the man and the
race from which he descended The subjoined letter will explain itself:
" Wellington Square, Feb. 29th, 1827.— To the editor of the New Ym^k
Observer : Sir, — I have read a paragraph in the New York SpedcUor of the 16th
instant, wherein it is stated that the fraternity at Niagara had sent for me to
receive and sacrifice the unhappy Moigan, of whom so much has been lately
spoken. You will oblige me by contradicting this report, which is wholly false.
Neither in that instance nor any other has such a barbarous proposal been
made to me ; nor do I believe the man exists who would dare to wound my
feelings in such a heinous manner. I know nothing of the man, nor of any
transaction relating to him, and I am much surprised that my name has been
called in question. — I am, Sir, yours respectfully, J. Brant."
In the year 1832, John Brant was returned a member of the Provincial
Parliament for the county of Haldimand, comprehending a good portion of the
territory originally granted to the Mohawks. The right of the Indians to this
territory yet depended upon the original proclamation of Sir Frederick Haldi-
mand, which, according to the decision of the courts of Upper Canada, conveyed
no legal title to the fee of the land. The Indians had been in the practice of
conveying away portions of their lands by long leases — ^for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years — ^and a large number of those persons by whose votes Brant
ivas elected had only such titles to their real estate. As the laws of Upper
Canada required a freehold qualification for county elections, Mr. Brant's return
was contested by the opposing candidate, Colonel Warren, and ultimately set
aside, and the Colonel declared to be duly chosen.
It was of small moment to either candidate, however, as that fell destroyer,
Asiatic cholera, swept over this country, and among its victims were both
contestants for parliamentary honours. Brant's remains were buried by the side
of those of his father, in the Mohawk cemetery, where they rested until the
reinterment of both father and son in 1850. Singular as it may appear, the date
of the death of John Brant is not given by any of his biographers, so far as is
known.
IXDIAX HISTORY. 141
The flight of time, and the corroding hand of n^lect, were fast obliterating
the little mounds of earth which marked the last resting place of Thayendanegea
and his son and successor, Ahyouwa^hs. In the year 1850, a few interested
friends of the Indians, together with the leading spirits of those of the Six
Nations, who were residents upon the soil, united their efforts, and with one
ceremony reintened the dust of both chieftains in one common vault The
tomb is a plain rectangular pedestal, surmounted by a flat slab, upon which is
engraved the following inscription : " This tomb is erected to the memory of
Thayendanegea, or Capt. Joseph Brant, principal Chief and Warrior of the Six
Nations Indians, by hiis fellow-subjects, admirers of his fidelity and attachment
to the British Crown. Bom on the banks of the Ohio River, 1742. Died at
Wellington Square, U. C, 1807. It also contains the remains of his son^
Ahyouwaeghs, or Capt. John Brant, who succeeded his father as Tekarihogea,
and distinguished himself in the War of 1812-15. Boru at the Mohawk
village, U. C, 1794. Died at the same place, 1832. Erected, 1850." The old
grave-yard was suffered to remain open to the inspection of any one who chose
to visit it, and in course of time the slab became marred by the vandal hands of
reUe hunters, until its destruction was threatened. A few years since an iron
fence was erected, which in a measure protects the tomb from injury.
The Brant Memorial.
«
The erection of a suitable memorial, which shall do honour to the great
chieftain from whom the county was named, has been the subject of much
attention by many of the most influential citizens for several years past ; and
though the matter has thus far assumed no final form, it is believed to be emi-
nently proper to record the progress which has been made. The subjoined
sketch of die movement from its inception is taken from a local paper, the titie
and date of which are not at hand. '' In August, 1874, His Boyal Highness
Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, paid a visit to the Six Nations, at their
reservation in this county. On this occasion the chiefs and warriors of the
Six Nation Indians presented His Soyal Highness with a fine portrait of their
former chief, Captain Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), at the same time asking
that he would graciously become their patron in an attempt to establish a
fitting monument to their chieftain's memory. To that end the subjoined
addr^ was presented to His Royal Highness.
*" To His Boyal HighnesSf Prince Artlmr, Duke of Comiaught^ itc, Jkc.^ Jkc
" The chiefs of the Six Nation Indians residing on the Grand Biver, in th»
counties of Brant and Haldimand, in the Province of Ontario, British North
America, in Council assembled, have, on behalf of themselves and their people,
resolved to avail themselves of the gracious opportunity presented by the firat
visit of His Elxcellency the Grovemor-Greneral to them, to convey to your Boyal
EQghness, through him, the assurance of their remembrance, with pride and
satisfactiony of the very distinguished honour conferred on them by the visit
yon were pleased to make to them when in this country, and of the considera-
tion and condescension manifested by your Boyal Highness on that occasion,
resulting in your becoming an honorary chief of their confederacy; also to
142 HISTORY OF BRANT C6UOTT.
convey to your Boyal Highness their grateful thanks for the kindness which
placed in their possession the highly prized portraits of their no less illustrious
than good Queen, your royal mother, of your no less distinguished than jnstly
lamented faUier, and of yourself, all of which now grace and adorn the walls of
their Council House, animating and inspiring them with that zeal for and loyal
attachment to the Crown and Eimpire which characterized their fathers in
troublous times, now happily passed away. They would also respectfully repre^
sent to your Boyal Highness their anxious desire to see performed their too long
delayed duty of worthily perpetuating the memory of their great chief, Captain
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who, during the great struggle, which resulted
in the creation of two supreme authorities on this continent, where only one
existed, loyally and gallantly led their fathers as allies of the Crown in defence
of it and the Empire, and when all was lost, with them maintained his allegiance,
sacrificing and giving up all and finding his way to the then wilds of Canada,
where he remained to the end of his eventful career, animating and inspiring
them with the same loyalty and attachment to the Crown and its institutions
which always characterized him and them whenever their services were required.
They would further respectfully refer your Royal Highness to the important
part the said Six Nations performed in the ever memorable War of 1812, when
it was sought to destroy the last vestige of British authority on this continent^
and ever since that time, when similar attempts have been made, and express
the hope that your Eoyal Highness in view of past services to their country,
may be graciously pleased to aid them in their contemplated efforts to raise a
fitting monument to and worthy of the memory of the distinguished chief of
whom they have been speaking, by permitting yourself to become the patron of
the undertaking, as it would be greatly promoted thereby, and it is one in which
they would assure your Royal Highness they feel a profound and lively interest.
They would also be permitted to beg the acceptance of your Royal Highness of
a likeness of their said lamented chief, made from a portrait of him taken on
the occasion of his visit to England, in the year 1786, and also one of the accom-
panying volumes, giving a history of his life and the events in which he took a
conspicuous part They would also be permitted to request that your Royal
Highness would be graciously pleased to convey to Her Gracious Majesty their
assurances of continued fidelity and attachment to Her Royal person and Govern-
ment ; and, finally, expressing the hope that the Great Spirit may ever watch
over and protect your Rcyal Highness and all the members of the Royal Family,
they would subscribe themselves,
" Your Royal Highxess's Faithful Sebvants.
" Council House, Ohsweken, August, 1874"
'' To this request his Royal Highness was pleased to return a favourable
reply. The many friends of the Indian tribes resident on on the Grand River
Reserve, in this county, and, who had their homes in Brantford and vicinity,
at length, in April, 1876, concluded that the time had come when they should
unite their efforts with those of their Indian friends, and take decided measures
to help on the construction of a national monument to the memory of Great
Britain's great Indian ally in the Revolutionary struggles, and after whom
INDIAN HISTORY. 143
their county and city were named Accordingly on, the 14th of April, 1876,
county and town were flooded with circulars calling for the formation of a
large local committee, from which to select an executive committee to forward
the monumental project. It speaks well for the intelligence and patriotism of
town and county when we can say that a very large proportion of the leading
men gave a hearty approval to the enterprise. From this local committee the
following Executive Committee was finally chosen. The Honorable David
Christie, Speaker of the Senate, Canada, Chairman ; Allen Cleghorn, Esquire,
Vice-Chairman ; C. A. Jones, Esquire, Secretary ; Alexander Robertson, Esq.,
Bank of British North America, Treasurer; William Patterson, Esquire, M. P. ;
A. S. Hardy, Esq... Q. C, itP.P. ; His Honour, S. J. Jones, County Judge,
Brant ; William Thompson, Esquire, Warden, Brant ; James W. Digby, Esq.,
M.D., Mayor, Brantford ; The Reverend Canon Nelles, Mohawk Parsonage ;
John Elliott, Esq., Reeve, Brantford ; George H. Wilkes, Esq., Deputy Reeve,
Brantford ; lieutenant-Colonel J. T. Gilkison, Visiting Superintendent Indian
Affidrs ; M. J. Kelly, Esq., M.D., LLB., County School Inspector ; R Hen-
wood, Esq., M.D. ; Henry Yates, Esq. ; Robert Henry, Esq. ; Henry Lemmon,
Esq. ; W. C. Trimble, Esq. ; Josh T. Johnson, Esq. ; William Watt, Jr., Esquire,
LLR ; Alfred J. Wilkes, Esq., LL.B. ; Arthur B. G. Tisdale, Esq. ; George
Lindley, Esq. ; John Turner, Esq. ; and the following chiefs, nominated at
a council of Six Nation Indians, for the Executive Committee : John Car-
penter ; David Thomas, Mohawks ; John Hill ; John Gibson, Jr., Senecas ;
John Buck, Levi Jonathan, Onondagas; John General, Nicodemu; Porter,
Oneidas ; Joseph Henry, William Wedge, Cayugas ; Moses Hill, Richard Hill,
Tuscaroras. Chief (Jeorge H. M. Johnson, Chief Interpreter ; Peter Edmund
Jones, M.D., Head Chief, Mississagua, New Credit This committee imme-
diately placed themselves in communication with the leading men and news^
papers of the Dominion. The result of this appeal for vice-patrons and public
sympathy was very encouraging, nearly all the public men of Canadai^ noted
in Church, State and letters, lending their names for the advancement of the
cause, while the press of the Dominion, without exception, gave the project
a hearty approval. In the meantime His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin, Gov-
ernor-General of Canada, had expressed great interest in the movement, and
had graciously allowed his name to be used as a patron thereof. On proper
representations having been made to his Royal Highness, the Duke of Con*
naught, through the Earl of Dufferin, that distinguished Englishman, also
kindly consented to become a patron of the fund.
" Oin the 2nd of August, 1877, at their Council House, Ohsweken, the Six
Nation Indians voted $5,000 of their funds toward this laudable movement.
On the 3pd of September, 1877, at the request of a large number of ratepayers
of the city of Brantford, the Mayor held a public meeting in the City Hall,
for the purpose of considering the advisability of the city contributing to the
Brant Memorial. At this meeting a motion was passed requesting the city
Council to make a grant of $5,000 toward the object named. This motion is
now in the hands of the City Fathers, and it is expected that a vote of the
ratepayers of Brantford will shortly ratify the motion, and thus be the means
of placing in one of our public squares a monument whose estimated cost is
530,000, and which will form at once an elegant and artistic ornament to the
144 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
city, and a worthy monument to one whose memory is closely connected with
Brantford and Brant County history."
The proposition above mentioned was made legal and operative by an Act
of Parliament, and was never submitted to the ratepayers. Considerable money
was expended in preliminary arrangements, and at last a design was submitted,
which had for its estimated cost the sum of $20,000. The Indians of the
county had vouched for 85,000, the town of Brantford for $5,000 more, and the
same, in round numbers, had been pledged from outside sources ; but the extent
of the investment had been rather overplaced, and the popular enthusiasm began
to cool before the work was even begun. Various efforts have been made from
time to time, since then, to revive the enterprise, and it is believed by many
friends of the undertaking that a monument will yet be erected.
The subjoined description of the design was prepared by a member of the
local press, at the request of the artist who produced it. The article was printed
in February, 1880. An exquisitely beautiful design of the proposed monument
was dmwn some time since by C. E. Zollicoffer, one of the most accomplished
artists in Canada, whose name is connected with the finest designs and carvings
on the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa. From the original design the same gen*
tleman has prepared a model of beauty, accurately proportioned, showing, on
a moderately small scale, what the monument will be when completed. The
memorial structure will be hexagonal, representing the six tribes. The base is
thirty-four teet in diameter, with nine steps leading to the superstructure. On
eajh comer is a pedestal fourteen feet from the ground, on which stands an
admirably executed representative of each tribe in costume, and of life size. On
each side of the column there is a panel with a coat of arms, being the escut-
cheon of all the different tribes. Surmounting the top of the column is a statue
of Joseph Brant in his war costume, and of proportionate height to suit the
elevation of the memorial. The steps are intended to be either of Montreal
limestone or Cleveland sandstone. The whole superstructure to be of Nova
blue leverock, or Beria sandstone. The panels are to be of No. 1 Vermont
marble. The seven figures are also to be of Vermont, Sicilian, or Carara
marble. The height of the column, including base, will be forty-five feet from
the ground, and will be built on the Victoria Square in front of the County
Buildings, opposite the Court House, the best site that could have been selected
in the city of Brantford. The model, of which we have given a short descrip-
tion, based upon the specifications for the monument, is on exhibition in one of
the large rooms of the Kerby Block, and has been admired by thousands of
visitors. It is indeed a rare specimen of the beautiful art, and reflects the
highest credit on the genius of Mr. Zollicoffer, who designed and executed it
The taste displayed by this gentleman in the design of the intended structure
is hardly less to be appreciated than the artistic skill and genius of those citi-
zens who designed the memorial to be erected in grateful acknowledgment of
the patriotic services of one of nature's truest noblemen, and his compatriots
whose manly and heroic action adorn British colonial history on this continent.
During the year 1882, another design of equal worth, but much less elaborate
in detail, and consqueently in cost of production, has been chosen, and it is
hoped that it will be possible to complete the work ere long — " a consummation
devoutly to be wished.".
indian history. 145
The Six-Nation Indians.
The scope of this work will not permit of even a summary sketch of the extent
and location of the principal Indian nations as they were found when European
adventurers be^aii the settlement of America. Certain great tribes, each with
a different language, and differing also in many other of their habits and traits,
were scattered over the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the far north.
Without attempting any Indian history of an earlier date than that of the
settlement of Lower Canada and what is now the State of New York, it may
be stated at once that this territory was in possession of two of the great prin-
cipal Indian nations of the continent. The Hurons, who were a part of the great
Algonquin combination, were, in a general way, the occupants of the northern
borders of Lakes Ontario, Erie, and on the eastern margin of Lake Huron. To
the eastward of this people were several other small tribes, who occupied the
country along the St. Lawrence Eiver toward its mouth. The Iroquois were
located on the south of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and on the southern side of the
St Lawrence as far east as the Eiver Richelieu. The great central home of this
body of Indians extended from near where the present city of Albany stands, up
the valley of the Mohawk River, and westward to the vicinity of Buffalo. A
glance at the map will demonstrate the situation to be a prolongation of a
line which passes directly eastward through. Brant County. This old home of
the Iroquois was in all respects one of the most attractive sections of country
north of the equator, and was, at an early period of American history, a coveteiif
spot by the emigrant and frontiersman.
The name Iroquois is a general term, used to define a particular subdivision
or group of Indians, and is, so far as this sketch is concerned, synonymous with
SLx Nations, which is commonly used to designate the main confederate body
of the Iroquois people. The Six Nations were composed of the following
tribes : Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras. The
*' Mohawks " were the ranking tribe, and were at the eastern extremity of the
nation, on the Lower Mohawk River. The Oneidas were next west, and were
settled in the neighbourhood of the head of Oneida Lake. Next came the
Onondagas, whose country was included in the triangle of which Syracuse,
Oswego, and Auburn are the respective corners ; it is also probable that the
country to the south of this triangle, including Skaneateles Lake, was common
to this tribe. The Cayugas were next west of the Onondagas, and occupied the
neighbourhood of Cayuga Lake. On the extreme west were the Senecas, whose
country extended from the head of Seneca Lake to Lake Erie.
The original confederacy was composed of the first five of the above tribes,
and was known in early times as the Five Nation**, but about 1712 the Tusca-
roras, who had been driven out df the Carolinas by the inhabitants of that
country, were admitted to the confederacy ;. after that event the body was
known as the Six Nations. The Tuscaroras appear to have been, at the time
of their reception into the Iroquois nation, a sort of unimportant and weak
tribe, whom the Five Nations adopted more on account of their kinship than
any valour which they possessed. Their principal home seems to have been
to the south and west of the Senecas.
The Six Nations were firmly allied with the English long before the Revol-
utionary War ; and upon the outbreak of that conflict, they were beset by
146 msTORr of bhant coLTrrr.
both British and AmericaoB to take np the hatchet as co-workers in the bloody
work of death. The Six Nations, as a body, became a part of the British
forces which engaged the colonies along the northern frontier, and having
resolved to " sink or swim " with the E^gUsh canse, they very natarallr did
their best against the common enemy. Having cast their lot witli the Eng-
lish, these Indians felt reluctant to return to their own lands in the States
after the declaration of peace, so the British Government ceded a laige tract
of coQUtry to Uieir ose and bene6t, as wards of the nation. This tmct of land
is along die coatse of the Grand River, and comprises a large part of what is
now Brant Coanty. In due time the Indians established themselves npon this
new tract of country, and began the slow but profitable journey toward
cinlization.
It may not be out of place here to remark that the Oneidas, and, to a certain
extent, the Tuscaroras also, renmned neutral during the war ; and in course of
the final settlement of things between the two great powers, these Indians were
provided for by the United States. The Indiui reser\'ation in the State of
Kew York, known as the " Cattaraagns " country, is based upon that final
adjustment of the results of war.
About the year 1867 the Six Nation Indians of Brant County formed an
agricultural society, giving to it the name of the " Six Nations' Agricultural
Society," The society has exbted and prospered from that time, holding eadi
year a fair which is laigely attended by the people. On Jaooary 10th, 18S3.
beiDg the second Wednesday in Janu^y, as pro\'ided by the constitution of
the above society for the election of officers, tne result was as follows : Wm.
Smith, Resident ; Peter Miller, Vice-President ; A. G. Smith, Secretary ; G. E.
Powless, Assistant Secretary ; James Styres, Treasurer ; Isaac Davis, Foreniaa
of Committee. Committee : Henry Clinch, Wm. Wage, John Hill, Josiah Hill.
Jacob Davis, Jno, F. Martin. One hundred and eighty of the Six Nations
enrolled themselves as members of the above society, the largest by far since
the society started sixteen years ago. An increasing interest is being taken
in the society by the Six Nation community, and consequently it mn-.t
succeed.
PART III.
COUNTY OF BRANT
AND
CITY OF BRANTFORD,
COUNTY OF BRANT.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory. — Geological. — Formation. — First Provisional
Council Proceedings, i8S2. — Address at First Meeting
of County Council.
Introductory.
The settlement of this county commenced in 1793, in what is now the town-
ship of Burford, hut the process can hadly be said to have been completed until
quite recently. The latest settled township is Onondaga, into which the first
settlers entered in 1836 ; the land was rapidly taken up, and settlement may be
said to have been completed in seven years, with the exception of some 1600
acres held then, as now, as an Indian Reserve.
The soil is described as being generally a rich clay, and a mixed clay and
sand loam» much in favour with agriculturists, because adapted to a variety of
crops. The county is well watered, the Grand River flowing through its centre
and affording excellent facilities for drainage. Brant also possesses exception-
ally good railway facilities, together with good local roads gravelled and mac-
adamized.
Its market facilities are first-class, both within and without its limits. Brant-
ford and Paris, the principal centres, are hardly more in favour with the farming
population in their immediate localities, than are Hamilton and Woodstock in
the adjoining counties, with the farmers on the borders of Brant.
The township acreage of Brant amounts to 223,215, or an average of 44,643
per township ; the cleared acreage amounts to 170,311, or an average of 34,062
per township ; according to the census of 1871 the total population of the
county was 32,259 ; but the city of Brantford now has a population of about
10,688, and the town of Paris 3,098. The townships sustain 14,737 horned
cattle, 7,363 horses, 18,766 sheep and 5,009 hogs — over two-thirds of the whole
being in the older-settled townships of Brantford and Burford. In some town-
ships live stock of improved breeds has been imported, but in most cases farm
animals are native and' ordinary. Though facilities for improving stock may be
said to be at the very door of the farmer, yet too little advantage has been
taken of them.
Nine cheese factories, an iron foundry (in which first-class stoves are manu-
factured), an agricultural implement factory and six flouring mills, all doing a
10
150 fflSTORY OF BRAi^T COUNTY.
good run of business ; also a large mimber of mechanical industries dependent
on the agricultuial population, attest the fact that Brant possesses all the
elements necessary to ensure permanent prosperity. The township of Brant-
ford is especially adapted for grain raising; the o^er townships, Burford, South
Dumfries, Onondaga and Oakland, are equally suitable for grain raising, stock
raising and dairying. ^
The land is generally well watered and timbered — the former by springs^
creeks and wells, the latter with maple, beech, elm, oak, pine, cedar, basswood,
tamarack, hickory and ironwood. The price of fuel varies from $2 to $4 per
cord, and the prospects of supply are good for many yeais.
A large area is under cultivation for cereals and roots. The average yield of
fall wheat is 18 bushels to the acre, and the average proportion of arable land
'^evoted to its growth is 19 per cent. ; of spring wheat 9^ bushels and 8j^ per
cent. ; oats, 30 bushels to the acre and 9| per cent ; rye, of which very little is
grown, 15 bushels to the acre ; peas, 15 bushels per acre and 6 per cent. ; com,
28 bushels per acre and 4 per cent. ; buckwheat, of which very little is grown,
20 bushels per acre ; potatoes, 118 bushels per acre and 2^ per cent ; turnips, 460
bushels per acre and 2f per cent. ; hay, 1^ tons per acre and 20 per cent. Few
roots are grown, and the quantity of land taken up for their cultivation is
inappreciable. About sixteen per cent of the cleared acreage is under pasturage,
and nearly two per cent, is taken up for orchards. A large proportion of the
uncleared land — nearly 53,000 acres — ^is suitable for cultivation. The farms
are well cleared of stumps, and there is an almost total absence of stony or
rocky land, and a very small proportion of such as may be regarded as too hilly
for profitable cidtivation. Indeed, nearly the whole county may be described
as exceptionally good cultivable rolling land — ^the proportion coming within
the categoiy of flat, bottom, wet or springy lands, being insignificant. About
70 per cent of the cleared acreage may be designated first-class for agricultural
purposes ; the remainder may be equally divided into second and third classes,
leaving out of consideration the small proportion just adverted to. The proximity
of extensive beds of gypsum at Paris and in the neighbouring county of
Haldimand, and of salt wells in Huron — ^in direct railway communication with
Paris and Brantford — enables the farmers to use at cheap rates salt and plaster
for grain and roots, and on grass land& These fertilizers are used to a con-
siderable extent, and as their value becomes more thoroughly understood they
will doubtless be empbyed in larger proportions. A majority of the farm
houses are either brick, stone or first-class frames-only a few are of log or
inferior frame. While about one-fourth of the outbuildings are described as
indifferent, three-fourths are reported to be first-class.
Hardly anything has been done in this county in the way of farm drainage,
the rolling nature of the land rendering it less necessary than in some other
districts. Still, there are some tracts which might be considerably improved
by tile drainage, and it is probable the owners may yet see the advantage of
doing so, with or without Government assistance. The desirability of econo*
mising labour, by the introduction of improved farm machinery, is generally and
practically recognized. Nearly every farmer in the county drills in his grain,
and gathers his harvest by the aid of labour-saving machines. Nevertheless, in
the spring there is always a demand for good agricultural labourers, and female
LOCAL UISTOBY. 151
servants are also generally in request. The former can earn from S12 to $15
per month, with board and lodging, and the latter secure permanent places at
$5 per month. But the class of mechanics usually found in agricultural com*
munities, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, etc., are suf&»
ciently represented.
The city of Brahtford is, by common consent, one of the most picturesque in
the Dominion, and the scenery of the county more nearly resembles that of the
south-western counties of England than is to be found perhaps in any other
part of Ontario. Quite a feature in the agriculture of Brant is the well known
stock farm, called Bow Park, formerly owned by the Hon. George Brown, and
now belonging to a joint stock company. Upon the farm, which consists of
900 acres, a system of mixed husbandry has for several years been carried on,
and much attention has been devoted, with considerable success, to the breeding
and raising of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The proprietary has recently
decided on confining itself in the future exclusively to the raising and breeding
of shorthorns.
Almost every description of non-tropical fruit known to culturists is success-
fully raised in the districts surrounding Paris, in this county. Apples, pears^
cherrier, grapes, plums, strawberries, raspberries, are grown in profusion, and
large quantities of winter apples and pears are annually shipped to home and
foreign markets. Peaches are also grown to some extent Fruit culture here
is, in fact, capable of almost indefinite extension. Of the total area under fruit
culture, two-thirds is growing apples and one-third other fruits.
According to the last published Municipal Statistics of the Province of
Ontario (1878), the total number of acres assessed, in the county of Brant^
exclusive of the city of Brantford and the town of Paris, was 215,902 ; the total
number of ratepayers assessed, 4,999 ; while coming under the head of " assets, "^
we find that the assessed value of real estate was S9,472,769 ; the assessed value
of personal property, Sl,033,621 ; the amount of taxable income, $40,060 ; total
amount of arrears of taxes, $3,532 ; other assets, $102,021 — making a grand
total of $10,652,003. On the other hand, the " liabilities " only amount to
$26,938, of which $25,370 is due by the township of Burford, and $1,568 by
the township of Onondaga, under the head of " corporation debentures." The
total revenues for all purposes and from all sources, during 1878, amounted to
$97,454. In the city of Brantford the number of acres assessed is 1,781, and
the number of ratepayers assessed, 1,848. Under the head of assets, $2,891,050
is set down as the assessed value of real estate ; $480,680 as the assessed value •
of personal property ; $117,400 as the amount of taxable income ; $19,418 as
the total amount of arrears of taxes, and $24,576 as " other assets " — making a
grand total of $3,533,124, or considerably more than one-third of the count}"^
assets. The liabilities are : Corpoiation debentures, $20,000; principal amount-
due to the Municipal Loan Fund, $194,018 ; other liabilities, $10,395 ; in all,
$224,413. The total revenues, for all purposes and from all sources, in 1878,
amounted to $114,592. Paris has 685 acres assessed, and 816 ratepayers. The
assets consist of $833,340, real estate ; $141,577, personal property ; $19,515,.
taxable income ; $1,661, arrears of taxes ; and $27,267, other assets. There are
no liabilities. The total revenue for all purposes and from all sources, in 1878,.
amounted to $19,225.
l62 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Stock by-laws exist in this county, but they are practically inoperative,
except in Brantford and Burford townships. Animals are sometimes impounded
when damage is done, but cows, sheep and other animals nm at large in the
other townships.
Geological.
It is only in the Onondaga formation that workable combinations of gypsum
are known to occur ; it is interstratified with peculiar dalomites and dalomitic
marls; the outcrop of this gypsiferous formation extends from the Niagara Biver
to the Saugeeu and Lake Huron, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles
but the gypsum mines at present known are all found within about thirty-iive
miles on the Grand River, extending from Cavuga to Paris. It is probable, how-
ever, that as the country to the north-west of "Paris becomes more seitled further
discoveries of gypsum beds will be made in that direction. To the south-east
of Cayuga, the overlying drift conceals any gypsum beds that may be present.
Twenty miles above Brantford gypsum is again found, and on both sides of the
river. A bed of three feet in thickness is here found, and above this place
gypsum is quarried in several places as far as Paris. Near this town, the mass
of gjrpsum is divided into two portions of four or five feet in thickness, by a
bed of four feet of shala
The amount of gypsum annually raised from these various quarries on the
Grand River is about 14,000 tons, which is for the most part employed for
agricultural purposes, and is consumed in western Canada Nothing certain is
known of the geological relations of this deposit, but it is perhaps, like the
extensive beds of gypsum that are wrought in Nova Scotia, of carboniferous
origin.
Formation.
An Act to make certain akerations in the Territorial Divisions of Upper
Canada, passed 2nd August, 1851, recites, that " Whereas it is expedient to
make certain alterations in the present territorial divisions of Upper Canada,
for judicial, municipal and other purposes : Be it therefore enacted by the
Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Legii>lative Council and of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada,
constituted and assembled by virtue of and under the authority of an Act
passed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
and intituled ' An Act to reunite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and
for the Government of Canada,' and it is hereby enacted, by the authority of
the same, that from and after the time when this Act shall come into force.
Upper Canada shall be divided into the counties in the schedules to this Act
marked A, which counti&s shall respectively include and consist of the several
townships mentioned in the said schedule as forming such county, and the
cities, towns and villages and the liberties of the said several cities therein."
Section IV. continues : *' And be it enacted, that at any time after the first
day of February next, it shall be lawful for the Governor of this Province, by
an Order in Council, to issue a proclamation under the Great Seal of the
Province, with reference to any of the counties of Elgin, Waterloo, Ontario,
Brant, Grey, Lambton or Welland, naming a place within such county for a
LOCAL HISTORY. 15^
ooanty town, and erecting the town reeves and deputy town reeves of such
ooanty then elected, or thereafter to be elected for the same, into a provisional
municipal council under the authority of the Act last above cited, until the
dissolution of the union of such county with the other county or counties to
which it is by this Act united ; and each and every such provisional municipal
ooanty shall, with regard to the county for which it shall be erected by such
proclamation, have, possess, exercise and perform all and singular the rights^
powers, privil^es and duties conferred, granted or imposed upon provisional
municipal councils erected by proclamation under the said recited Act, which
shall apply to it in the same manner as to any provisional municipal council
erected under the said Act ; and the first meeting of such provisional municipal
council shall be held at the county town appointed by such proclamation, and
at such time as shall be thereby appointed, but if not held at such time, then
at any time on which a majority of the members shall agree."
Section Y. — " And be it enacted, that so soon as the Court House and Gaol
in any of the said counties shall have been erected and completed at the county
town of such county, according to the provisions of the fifteenth section of the
Act last above cited, and the other provisions of the said fifteenth section shall
have been complied with by such county, it shall and may be lawful for the
Governor in C!ouncil to issue a proclamation dissolving the union between such
county and the county or counties with which it is united, according to the
Schedule B of this Act ; and if it be so imited with more than one county, then
the remaining counties shall form a union of counties under this Act until they
be separated in the manner by the said Act provided ; and all provisions of the
said Act or of this Act applicable to unions of counties in general, shall be
applicable to such union, to all intents and purposes as if such remaining coun-
ties had been set forth as such in the said Schedule B to this Act."
Section XIII. — '' And be it enacted, that for the purpose of representation
in the Provincial Parliament, the counties mentioned in the schedule to this
Act marked C shall respectively be united under the names therein assigned,
and each such union shall be represented by one member . . . but the seat
of any member elected before the commencement of this Act shall not be
a&cted by its coming into force/'
The following is an extract from Schedule A above spoken of: ''26. The
County of Brant shall consist of the townships of Brantford, Onondaga, Tus-
caioia, Oakland, South Dumfries and Burford, and the village of Paris." In
Schedule B. — Counties united for municipal, judicial and other purposes.
Mention is made of the counties of Weutworth, Halton and Brant. Schedule
C has the counties of Weutworth and Brant united as the county of Weut-
worth, for purposes of representation.
This Act also^provides, in Section XIV. of the same, for the formation of new
townships, and in Schedule I> we find the following : " 4. North Dumfries,
which shall include and consist of the six northern concessions of the present
township of Dumfries. 5. South Dumfries, which shall include and consist
of the residue of the present township of Dumfries."
FiBST Provisional Council Proceedings, 1852.
The following are the minutes of the Provisional Municipal Council of the
County of Brant, one of the United Counties of Wentworth, Halton and Brant,
164 HISTOKY OP BRANT CODMTY.
passed at the first meeting held iu the Town Hall, Brantford, on the I5tfa day
of April, 1852 : — The Town Eeeves and Depaty-Reeves, representing the Tarioos
Uunicipalities within the new County of Brant, one of the United Counties of
Weutworth, Halton and Brant, met at the Town Hall, at the Town of Brant-
ford, this day, at 2 o'clock p.m., under and by virtue of a proclamation of the
Executive Government of the Province, of date 28th day of Fehniary last
Joseph Duffett Clement, Esquire, Reeve of the Town of Brantford — Presiding
Officer appointed under and by virtue of a warrant to him directed by Edward
Cartwright Thomas, Esq., Sheriff of the said United Counties, under and by virtue
of the Statute in that behalf — presiding, and Jno. Cameron, Esquire, Acting Clerk.
The members present were : Joseph D. Clement, Esq., Keeve of the Town of
Brantford ; Philip C. VanBrocklin, Esq., Deputy-Reeve of the Town of Brant-
ford ; HerbertBiggar, Esq., Reeve of the Township of Brantford; Benson Jones,
E^., Deputy-Reev^ of the Township of Brantford ; Eliakim Malcolm, Reeve of
the Township of Oaklands; George Tonell, Esq., Reeve of the Township of
Onondaga ; Daniel Anderson, Esq., Reeve of the Township of South Dumfries ;
Wm. Mullen, Esq., Deputy-Reeve of the Township of South Dumfries ; Chas.
Perley, Esq., Reeve of the Township of Burford ; I. B. Henry, Esq., Deputy-
Reeve of tlie Township of Burford ; John Smith, Reeve of the Village of Paris.
The proclamation and warrant having been read by the Clerk, the Presiding
Officer called upon the Reeves and Deputy-Reeves to elect their Warden, where-
upon it was moved by Wm, Brant, seconded by D, Anderson, that Joseph D.
Clement be appointed Warden of the Provisional County of Brant, Moved in
amendment by Benson Jones, seconded by Charles S. Perley, that Eliakim
Malcolm be the Provisional Warden for the County of Brant for the present
municipal year. The amendment having been put and lost, the original motion
was carried, and the Yeas and Nays being called for, were as follows, viz.:
Yeas : Messrs. Yonell, Mullen, Biggar, Anderson, TaoBrocklio, Henry, Smith
and Malcolm. Nays : Messrs. Perley and Jones.
On motion of Mr. VanBrocklin, seconded hy Mr. Biggar, John Cameron was
appointed Clerk of the County for the current year.
The Warden and Clerk having taken the oath of office, the Warden took the
chair, and having called the Council to order, it proceeded to the following
business, viz. :
Moved by Mr. Malcolm, seconded by Mr. Anderson, and resolved, that Hamil-
ton Biggar is a fit and proper person to fill the office of Treasurer, and that
\\a \ta nnnj onnAinljul i.n tha aame.
ded by Mr. Henry, and resolved, that the Stand-
District Council, published in 1848, be adopted by
County of Brant until otherwise amended.
}nded by Mr. Smith, that the Council go into
jpoint Select Committees. — Lost
a, seconded by Mr. Anderson, and resolved, that
r the Town Council of the Town of Brantford, of
36 to the use of the Town ^all, be accepted by
rnded by Mr. Jones, and resolved, that Mesara.
and Smith be a Standing Committee on Printing.
LOCAL HISTORY. 155
Moved by Mr. Yonell, seconded by Mr. Perley, and resolved, that the Warden
do pnt himself in communication with David Thorburn, Esq., Commissioner
of Indian Lands, and ascertain what lands, if any, have been set apart by the
Indian Department for County purposes in the Town of Brantford, and, if any^
to request that a patent or grant may issue for the same as soon as possible.
Moved by H. Biggar, seconded by W. Mullen, and resolved, that the Warden
be requested to procure a set of books for the use of the Council.
Moved by K Malcolm, seconded by L B. Henry, and resolved, that the
Building Committee for the erection of County Buildings shall eoosiat of five,
and that in appointing said conmiittee each member of the Council shall name
one, and those having the greatest number of votes shall compose said com-
mittee. The committee being struck in accordance with the foregoing resolution,
is composed of Messrs. Malcolm, Jones, Smith, Perley and VanBrocklin.
Moved by P. C. VanBrocklin, seconded by D. Anderson, and resolved, that
Messrs. Perley, Anderson, Mullen, Henry and VanBrocklin be a Committee on
Finance.
Moved by J. Smith, seconded by C. Perley, an.d resolved, that the Warden be
requested to apply to David Christie, Esq., for the subscription list of sundry
inhabitants of the County of Brant towards the erection of County Buildings.
In accordance with the foregoing resolution, David Christie, Esq., being present
in Council, delivered the scdd subscription list to the Warden.
Moved by K Malcolm, seconded by I. B. Henry, that the subscription list
for the erection of County Buildings be placed in the hands of the Building
Committee.
Moved in amendment by J. Smith, seconded by G. Yonell, that the subscrip-
tion list of sundry inhabitants of the County of Brant towards the erection of
County Buildings be referred to the Committee on Finance. — Carried.
• Moved by E. Malcolm, seconded by I. B. Henry, that the Building Committee
do advertise for plans and specifications for the erection of the Court House
and Gaol for the County of Brant, and report the same to this Council at its
next session, and that the plan approved of, should the owner not undertake
the buildings, eutitles him to the sum of ten pounds.
Moved in amendment by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. VanBrocklin, that the
Building Committee \)e instructed to advertise for plans and specifications for
the erection of a Court House and Graol for the County of Brant, ofiTering a
premium of £15 for that which this Council approves of, in the event of the
architect not having the erection of the buildings, and report to this Council at
the next session.
The amendment having been put and lost, the original motion was carried.
Moved by G. Yonell, seconded by J. Smith, and resolved, that the Warden
be requested to procure a seal for the municipality, and that Messrs. Clement,
VanBrocklin, Smith, Biggar, and the mover, be a committee to prepare a plan
and suitable device for the same.
On motion of E. Malcolm, the Council adjourned until to-morrow morning at
9 o'clock.
Jas. D. Clement,
John Cameron, . Warden.
County Clerk.
156 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
At the meetiDg on the following day the standing rules of the United Coun-
ties of Weutworth, Halton and Brant were adopted for the guidance of the
Council 'pi^o tern., the resolution of the previous day, adopting the Rules of the
Gore District Council, being rescinded, and the Council went into a Committee
of the Whole on the amount necessary to be raised for the erection of County
Buildings, and also the time and manner of raising the same.
The following resolution was reported, viz.: — "That the sum of £5,000,
including the subscription list, be appropriated for the erection of a Court House
and Gaol for the County of Brant, to be raised by assessment on all the
ratable property in the said county, in six annual payments, from this date."
This report was received and adopted.
The Chairman also of the Committee on Public Buildings submitted a report,
recommending the adoption of a certain plan and specifications for a Gaol and
Court House, exhibited by Mr. John Turner, which was received and adopted.
Tenders were at the same time ordered to be advertised for for the erection
of thftse buildings, on the following conditions of payment, viz. : — " That the
buildings are to be finished by the first day of December next ; that the terms
of payment be one-sixth of the amount on the first day of January next, and
the amount available on the subscription list as soon as collected, and the
remainder in five equal anuual instalments, on the first day of January in each
year, with interest after the first day of January next ; that each party
tendering be required to state the deduction he or they would be willing to
make by having payments made at shorter dates ; and also that it may be
admissible for any party to tender on such other plan which may be submitted
to the Council, reserving to the Council the right to submit to competition such
other plan to parties who may have tendered for the one already adopted.'^
Received and adopted.
Tenders were accordingly ordered to be advertised for in all the county news-
papers and in the Hamilton Spectator, and 150 bills printed for same purpose.
At the meeting of the Council on May Ist following, on motion of K Mal-
colm, a memorial from that body to the Governor-General, praying that the
Grand River navigation be maae a Provincial work in connection witK the
Welland Canal, was received, read and adopted, and the contract^f or printing for
the Council for current year was awarded to Messrs. Bacey & Mair, they
tenderiug lowest. At the same time the Committee of the Whole recommended
that the second plan for the Court House and Gaol Buildings, presented by
Mr. Robert Turner, be adopted, which on motion was carried. For this plan
the Council awarded Mr. Turner the sum of £10.
Tenders for the erection of these buildings having been advertised for, " The
Chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings reported that the committee
have examined the various tenders for the erection of the Gaol and Court
House for the County, and the furnishing all materials for the same, and that
they find that the tender of Messrs. Turner and Sinon is the lowest by forty
pounds, teu shillings, currency, their tender being for the sum of four thousand,
four hundred and four pounds, ten shillings, currency, and the terms of pay-
ment being better, they recommend the adoption of the same."
It was further moved by £, Malcolm, seconded by B. Jones, and resolved,
** That in entering into contract with Messrs. Turner and Sinon, a condition be
LOCAL HISTORY. loT
inserted, reserving to the Building Committee the right to make such altera-
tions in the plan and erection of the public buildings ad they may think
necessary, which alterations, with reference to the amounts thereof, whether
to lessen or increase the expense, shall be left to the appraisal of two competent
persons, one to be chosen by the committee and one by the builders ; and in
case of any disagreement, the said appraisers to choose a third, and the award
of any two of them to be final." At the same time the committee was
instructed to employ some competent person to superintend the erection of the
buildings, the expense of which was not to exceed twenty-five pounds.
At the Council meeting, 15th May, it was agreed to raise a sufficient sum by
tax in each year, for six years, to pay off four thousand pounds, with interest^
then appropriated for the erection of County Buildings. The B3'-law (No.
II.) provided that " Joseph Duflfett Clement, Warden of the said Provisional
Municipal Council, and Eliakim Malcolm, Benson Jones, John Smith, Charles.
S. Parley, Philip Cady YanBrocklin, and Isaac B. Henry, Esqs., members of
the Council, do form, compose and constitute a committee to superintend, man-
age and see faithfully cairied out and completed, the constructiou and erection
of said Couit House and Gaol," etc., etc., and Frederick J. Rastrick, Architect,
was also appointed to superintend in his capacity.
The first By-law passed by the first Provisional Municipal Council of the
County of Brant was as follows : —
By-Law No. I. — To provide a Corporate Seal, or Common Seal, for the Muni-
cipality of the County of Brant, one of the United Counties of Wentworth,
Halton and Brant.
Whereas it is expedient or necessary that a Common or Corporate Seal
should be adopted and provided for the Municipality of the County of Brant ^
Be it therefore enacted by the Provisional Municipal Council thereof, in
Council assembled, under and by virtue of the Upper Canada Municipal Corpo-
ration Acts, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, that the
Common or Corporate Seal of the Municipality shall be one inch and a half in
diameter, bearing the following device, figures and inscriptions thereon, that is
to say, bearing upon it the words in its margin, " County of Brant, C. W.,**
with' an oak tree, and an Indian standing erect, with a bow and arrow in his
hands, and a deer in the distance, which shall be the Corporate or Common
Seal of the said Municipality of the County of Brant. Passed in Council the
first day of May, A.D., 1852.
Jno. Cameron, Jos. D. Clement,
County Clerk. Warden.
At the same meeting it was also agreed " that a true copy of the subscription
list for County Buildings be put into the hands of the contractors, with instruc-
tions to them to collect one-fourth that quarter, and quarterly as the work
progresses, or as the said subscription requires, with an assurance from the
Council that whatever sums may be paid should be credited upon the said list.'^
And it was further agreed " that Messrs. Perley and VanBrocklin do, as soon
as the by-laws might be published, put themselves in communication with
capitalists, with a view to raising money upon the county debentures so soon as
158 HISTORY OF BRANT COUlTrY. .
Ihey could be l^ally issued, or to take such steps as they may deem neoessarr
for raising the ways and means req nired for the erection of the County Build-
ings."
At the meeting held on June 19th, John Cameron, Esq., was appointed
Solicitor to the Council Mr. William Mellish was appointed Architect to the
Council to superintend the erection of the County Buildings, the amount of his
subscription of £25 being allowed as payment of such service duly rendered.
The sum of £350 was borrowed from H. C. Baker, Esq., and a note was handed
him, payable in debentures on the first day of September following.
On the 24fth of June the Committee on Finance reported that in their opinion
there would require to be raised from all the taxable property in the county, to
meet expense of current year, the sum of £1,095 13& 3d. currency, as follows^
viz. : — ^To pay one-sixth of the debt created for County Buildings, £667 : to pay
the salaries of the county officers, £100; to pay incidental expenses, £95 13s. 3(L
to pay interest on debentures, £2,200, for four months, £44 ; to pay interest on;
debentures^ £2,200, for six months, £66 ; to pay for assessing and collecting, and
to meet any deficiency or losses that may arise in collecting the taxes, £123.
Total, £1,095 13s. 3d. This was to be apportioned as follows : Township of
Brantford, £323 68. 4d; To%ni8hip of Onondaga, £72 lis. 8d.; Township of Oak-
land, £40 15s. 7d. ; Township of Dumfries (South), £192 15s. 8d ; Township of
Burford, £215 38. 4d. : Town of Brantford, £177 12s. 3d. ; Village of Paris, £73
8a 5d.
The Committee on Public Buildings reported, November 6th, that the Graol,
with some slight exceptions, was completed, and that the gaoler's house would
be ready for occupation within one week; also that the Court House was advanc-
ing rapidly, and was in so forward a state as to warrant it being pronounced fit
fi)r county purposes.
The Clerk submitted to the Council, November 6th, the following draft of a
memorial or petition to the Council of the United Counties on the subject of a
separation. ** To the Municipal Council of the United Counties of Wentworth,
Halton and Brant, in Council assembled, humbly sheweth. That by a proclama-
tion issued and tested on the 28th day of February, A. D. 1852, the Town Reeves
jmd Deputy Town Beeves of the County of Brant, one of the Junior Counties of
the aforesaid United Counties, were formed into a Provisional Council, under
the authority of the Statute 14 and 15 Victoria, cap. 5, and the Town of Brant-
ford was thereby fixed as the County Town of the said County ; that in such
County Town your petitioners procured the necessary property, and have erected
thereon a Court House and Caol, adapted to the wants and requirements of the
said County. Tour petitioners would therefore make application to your
honourable Council under the provisions of the Act of Parliament, 12 Victoria,
<»p. 78, section 15, for an immediate adjustment and settlement of the propor-
tion of any debt due by the said United Counties which it would be right and
Just that your petitioners should take upon themselves, with the time and terms
of the payment thereof, and that you would also be pleased by resolution of
your honourable Council to direct your Warden to grant a certificate setting
forth such adjustment and settlement in order that the dissolution between
your petitioners and the said United Counties may be carried into effect with*
out delay. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray." On motion.
LOCAL HISTORY. 159
this petition was adopted and ordered to be laid before the Council of the United
Counties at its next meeting. At the same time, on motion of Mr. YanBrocklin,
seconded by Mr. Yonell, it was resolved, " That this Council^ in coming to a
final adjustment and arrangement of the debt, with a view to a separation from
the United Counties, do assume and take upon itself the payment of the deben-
tures of the Paris and Ayr road, or any other debt created for any other road
or work within the limits of the County of Brant, and that although this
Council is of opinion that the said Junior County of Brant is entitled to some
consideration in the loss of the public property of the said United Counties in
consequence of such separation, nevertheless it is, under all circumstances,
willing to overlook that and retire from the connection, with the understanding
that the Senior Counties of Wentworth and Halton do assume and take charge
of all the debts and liabilities which have been created and are existing on
account of public works, or anything else within their limits."
The following requisition was sent to the Provisional Warden of the County
of Brant : " We the undersigned Councillors of the Provisional County of Brant,
request that you will call a special meeting of the Provisional Council, on Friday
the 24th instant, at the hour of 2 o'clock p.m., at Burley's Hotel, in the town of
Brantford, to take into consideration mattera relating to a separation of the
County of Brant from the United Counties of Wentworth, Ilalton and Brant
Given under our hands at Hamilton, on this 23rd December, 1852. Signed^
Ellajom Malcolm, Benson JoneS, Chakles S. Perley, William Mullen,
David Anderson, George Yonell, P. C. VanBrocklin.
" In pursuance of the above requisition, I hereby call the said meeting as
above requested. Signed^ J. D. Clement, Provisional Warden-"
The Council met, pursuant to the foregoing requisition and appointment, at
Burley's Hotel, Town of Brantford, at 2 o'clock p.m., the Warden, and Messrs.
Malcolm, Perley, Jones,yanBrocklin and Biggar, being present. On motion of Mr.
Malcolm, seconded by Mr. Perley, it was resolved, "That the Provisional
Warden be and he is hereby instructed to sign all requisite papers on behalf
of the Council that mav be necessarv to effect a separation of the County of
Brant from the United Counties of Wentworth, Halton and Brant." On
motion of Mr. VanBrocklin, seconded by Mr. Biggar, it was resolved, " That the
Treasurer do correspond with the collectors oi the different towns, townships
and villages comprising this municipality, requesting them to pay over to the
Treasurer thereof all moneys now due and belonging thereto. Signed, John
Cameron, Provisional County Clerk ; J. D. Clement, Warden."
Town Hall, 13th January, 1853. At the Council meeting of this date, the
Provisional Treasurer submitted his statement of the financial affairs of the
County of Brant, embracing the period between the 19th of June, 1852, and
the above date, debiting and crediting himself as follows, viz : —
1852. To sundiT cash from Canada Life Assurance Co., £2,100 ; cash on
assessment from Town of Brantford, £173 3s. 5j^. ; cash on assessment from
Township of Brantford, £250 ; cash on assessment from township of Onondaga,
£72 lis. 8d. ; cash on assessment from Township of Burford, £209 15s. 9d. ;
cash on assessment from Township of Oakland, £39, 15s. 2^d. ; cash on assess-
ment from Township of South Dumfries, £170 lis. 6d. ; County debentures,
Turner and Sinon, contractors, £850. 1853. To cash and draft on assessment
160 HISTORY OF BEAST COLNTV.
from Paris, £67 8s. 9J. ; draft on assessment from South Dumfries, £14 73. lO^d.
Total, £3,949 14a. 2id.
1852. Bv paid Turuer and Sinoa, £2,950 ; bv paid sundry salaries, expenses
etc.,£151 3s. 6id ; by paid Debenture No. 1, 8666 13i. 4d. ; by paid iuterest on
Debenture No. 1, £46 23. ; balance in treasury, £135 15a 3^d. Total, £3,949
14s. 2Jd.
Debentures issued for Court House and Gaol, £3,150 ; assessment for 1853,
£999 143. 2^d. ; Messrs. Turner and Sinon, contractors, £2,950; debentures,
£666 13s. 4d ; Hamilton Biggar, Treasurer, £135 153. 3Jd. ; salaries, £75 ; sun-
dry under the Council, £6 33. 7d. ; Councillors' accounts, £28 2s. 6d. ; discount
account, £200 ; interest account, £46 23. OJd. ; printing account, £41 17s. 5Jd.
Total, £4,149 14s. 2Jd.
On the same date the Warden transmitted a telegraph message to the Hon.
A. Morio, Provincial Secretary, urging the necessity of issuing the proclamation
separating the County of Brant from the United Counties " before the fourth
Monday of the present month," and on motion of Mr. VanBrocklin, seconded
by Mr. Perley, it was resolved, " That this Council cannot allow this its first
regular meeting after the last meeting of the Council of the United Counties of
"W^ntworth, Haltou-and Brant, to pass, without an expression of the high sense
and estimation in which it holds the conduct of the members of the Senior
Counties of Weutworth and Halton, in relation to the dissoluUon of the con-
nection between those counties and the County of Brant ; and that a vote of
thanks is due and b hereby tendered to the members representing the said
Senior Counties in the said Council, tor the honourable disinterestedness and
handsome manner in which they received and treated the applicationof this
Council for a separation ; and that the Provisional Warden do transmit a copy of
this resolution to the Warden of the said United Cuunties, to be laid before the
Council at its next meeting." The Warden, having been voted twenty-five
pounds for his services, vacated the chair, and the Council rose.
Address .yt FniST Mefting of County Council.
The first session of the Municipal Council of the County of Braut was held
in the Town Hall, Brantford, on January 24tb, 1853. The members present
were Messrs. Malcolm, Woodyatt, McMichael, Yonell, Jones, Chapin, Perley,
Henry, Whitlaw, Anderson and Mullen.
A telegram announcing the separation of the County from the United Coun-
ties, together with certain corrispondence between the Provincial Warden and
the Executive Government on the same matter, having been read by the Clerk
of the Provisional Council, the Warden, Eliakim Malcolm, Esq., addressed the
Council as follows ■
thank you for the honour you have conferred upon me by
den of this county, which situation I will endeavour to fill
liamble ability, and 1 trust, by oar united exertions, that the
nty will be conducted to the furtherance of the interests of
ly. I have to congratulate you and the inhabitants of the
now about to realize the much-desired object which has for
ccupied the mind of the several townships now comprising
LOCAL HISTORY. \ 161
the County of Brant We are now, by proclamation, set apart from the union
* which lately was known as ' The United Counties of Wentworth, Halton and
Brant,' and are become a separate county.
Gentlemen, taking into consideration the extent of territory comprising this
county its equal for natural advantages is not to be found in united Canada.
Its soil for the growth of wheat (which is the principal article of export), can-
not be surpassed ; and all other grains, culinary roots and grass, are produced in
luxuriant crops. The County of Brant, also, in proportion to its territory, I
think I am warranted in saying, possesses more hydraulic power than any other
county in Canada. This power is not confined to one locality, but is so ordered
by an all-wise Providence as to be beneficial to the whole county. As to the
improvements, I would ask, What was the town of Brantf ord, now your County
Town, at my earliest remembrance ? What is it now, and what are its future
prospects?
I have passed through this place when there was only one log hut ii^ it, and
that was kept as a substitute for a tavern. Look at it now with its beautiful public
buildings, iron foundries, steam engines, numerous brick stores (both wholesale
and retail), flour mills, machine shops of all descriptions, well kept public
houses, splendid public residences, printing establishments, and, I am sorry to
say, distilleries, breweries and low grog shops, the enemies and destructives of a
portion of the human race ! The town of Brantford is most admirably situated
in the centre of an extensive farming country, at the head of the navigation of
the Grand River (one of the most splendid rivers in Canada), and when that
navigation is completed, which we trust will not be long, it wUl afibrd a cheap
and easy mode of conveying the products of the surrounding country to market,
and bring in return such articles of merchandise as are wanted by the inhabit-
aots. The main thoroughfare from the eastern to the western sections of the
Province passes through Brantford, and leading roads intercept it from all parts
of the surrounding country. A railroad is now in a state of forwardness,
approaching completion, from BufiTalo through Brantford (where, no doubt, a
depot will be located), to intersect the Great Western at Paris, and thence to
Goderich. We are looking forward to the time, which we trust is not far dis-
tant, when, if not thwarted by the narrow-mindedness of our Legislature, we
may expect to have a railway from the western extremity of the Province via
St Thomas, Norwich and Burford, to intersect the Great Western between this
town and Hamilton.
Gentlemen, it has fallen to our lot to commence the local afTairs of our new
eounty, and I trust that our united deliberations will be governed solely for the
benefi't of the county. The principal thing is to guard against unnecessary
expenditure of the county funds. A steady and progressive course of improve-
ments can be made without overburdening the people of the county with taxes.
My motto, while I had the honour to be a member of the District and County
Councils, has been to guard against unnecessary expenditure t>f public money.
I would say further that I need not confine myself to the town of Brantford in
relation to improvements. Take a view of the whole county, and see the
improvements in agriculture, and the numerous villages and towns springing up
in all directions, and you will at once see that the County of Brant is all that I
have represented it to be."
162 HISTORY OF BBAST COUSTV.
The Special Committee to which was referred this address, submitted the
following report at the Couninl meeting on the next day : " To the Municipal
Council of the County Brant. Tour committee, to whom was referred the
Warden's address, heg leare to report that after a careful perusal thereof, they
are happy to state that they do fully concur in the eulogium passed upon our
new county, as regards its natural advantages, and with regard to its hydraulic
power, the Grand River, in all its pristine magnificence, together with the vast
improvements that are being made. Your committee are of opinion that if the
county is not the most, it is at least one of the most favoured portions of Her
Miyesty's dominions. Your committee would also state that tliey do not deem
that the railroad from the western extremity of the Province, via St. Thomas,
Norwich and Burford, is at present required to develop our natural resources,
however much it may be at a future period, nor would they attribute to the
Legislature for an instant a narrow-mindedness in their not incorporating said
road in the event of a charter being applied for, hut are of opinion that what-
ever action they may take in the matter will be done through a belief that they
are doing that which, in their opinion, is just and equitable to all parties con-
cerned. All of which is respectfully submitted." Signed, on behalf of the
committee, Oeoboe Yonell, Chairman.
LOCAL mSTOBT. 16S
CHAPTER II.
County Buildings. — Turner and Sinon Matter. — Presenta-
tion of Flag.
County Buildings.
These are situated immediately to the north of Victoria Park, and are
bounded on the north by Nelson Street, on the east by George, on the south by
Wellington, and on the west by Market Streets. The site on which they stand is
port of the land obtained as a gift from the Six Nations Indians through Capt.
Brant, at the time the original survey of the town was made. They were
erected in 1851-52, John Turner being the architect, and Turner and Sinon, the
contractors. The residence of the gaoler, attached to the main buildings, was
built at the same time, as well as the first Oaol, which was a small, antiquated,
square construction, on the north side of the Court House, capable of holding
about twenty prisoners. A new addition to the Graol was made in 1865 by John
Elliott, contractor, which provided an accommodation for forty prisoners, the
cells in the old gaol quarter being dispensed with. Other alterations and
improvements were subsequently made by Strickland, to the extent of an
outlay of from three to four thousand dollars. The first enclosure to the Gaol
and gaol-yard was a high wooden fence, but this gave place in about the yera
1865 to the present massive wall. The Court House portion of the buildings
has, on the upper story of all, four rooms used for various purposes. Next
below are the Court Room, in dimensions about forty-five feet square. In this
room all judicial and County Council courts are held. Immediately adjoining
are the judges, cleiks, grand jury and petit jury rooms. On the same flat also
is the Office of Clerk of the Township of Brantford, R. M. Willson. On the
lower flat are the offices for the Sherifl*, County Judge and Master in Chancery,
Local Registrar of the High Court of Justice, Clerk of the County Court and
Registrar of the Surrogate Court, County Clerk, County Treasurer, Inspector of
Public Schools, Governor of the Gaol, and the Law Library Association
Secretary, together with the Law Library. The original contract figure paid to
Turner and Sinon, after deducting an allowance of XI 58 18s. 6d., was, with
extras, j£5,181 13s. 6d., and on adding the amounts for the Elliott contract,
the buildiiig of the wall, the Strickland and other permanent improvements
from time to time, the total cost to the County of these public buildings will
not fall short of $50,000. C. Edwin Smith, the present Governor of the Gaol,
received his appointment on the 2nd November, 1871, having as his assistant,
Andrew S. Keachie. George C. Keachie was the fii-st gaoler, with A. S.
Keachie as deputy. The only executions that have so far taken place in Brant-
ford were those of two coloured men, John Moore and Robert Over, on the 7th
June, 1850, for the murder of Launcelot Adams, mail carrier, on the Pans Road^
164 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Thursday, April 14th, same year. The next and last execution was that of
Benjamin Carrier, an Indian, for the murder of his wife with an axe in the
woods of the Beservation. He was hanged on 11th June, 1880. The indi-
vidual who bad the honour of being first incarcerated and formally opening the
<}aol was one Edmund Casey, who was committed on a charge of assault,
by Geo. S. Wilkes, Esq., J. R
The Registrar's Office is situated on the south-west comer of the ground
immediately in front of the County Building. The office of Registrar was estab-
lished on the 22nd January, 1853, but the building itself, which is of brick, was
not erected for a year or two afterwards. In the meantime the Registrar had
the use of a room in the County Buildings. In 1880, a considerable addition
was built to the west end of the office, and the total cost may be estimated at
About $4,000.
TUKNER AND SiNON MATTER.
The following agreement was entered into between the contractors and the
Municipality, viz. : " It is hereby fully understood and agreed upon, by and
between John Turner and William Sinon, contractors, for the building of
the Oaol and Court House for the County of Brant and the Municipal
Council of the said county, that in taking possession of any portion of the
said buildings by the said Council, it is not to be considered as accepting the
said building from the hands of the said contractors, or in any manner to have
the effect of discharging the said contractors from the performance of their
contract, or the completion of the said buildings, according to the terms thereof.
Dated this twenty-fifth day of January, A.D. 1853."
{Signed,) John Tubner,
Witness, John Cameron, William Sinon,
County Clerk. Eciakim Malcolm.
On June 22nd, 1853, the Committee on Finance and Assessment submitted
the following in their report to the Council : '' Having examined the account of
Messrs. Turner and Sinon for extra work on Court House and Gaol, and certain
articles of furniture, are of the opinion that the said account is unaccountably
high ; therefore recommend the same to the consideration of the Council in Com-
mittee of the Whole.
(Signed,) Chas. Whitlaw,
Chairman.
On the foUowing day, June 23rd, on motion of Mr. Whitlaw, seconded by
Mr. Anderson, the Council went into Committee of the Whole on the account
of Turner and Sinon. Report received and adopted, and on motion of Mr.
Whitlaw, seconded by Mr. Woodyatt, it was ordered " that Messrs. Turner and
Sinon be paid the sum of seven hundred pounds currency on account of contract
and extra work, and that the Warden do issme his order upon the Treasurer
for the same."
On September 13th, 1853, the committee to whom was referred the subject
of the completion of the County Buildings and the account of Turner and Sinon,
brought in the following report : " Your committee to whom was refetred the
'Cc^miUy^/r- '
TiK MC« WRE
PUBLIC UBRAIT
LOCAL HISTOBY. 167
matter relating to the erection of the Court House and Gaol beg leave to submit
the following report, viz. : Amount of contract, £4,404 10s. ; amount for extra
work, £777 3s. 6d. , interest on sum unpaid, £37 10s ; total, £5,219 3s. 6d. By
simdrj payments, £4,535 5s. ; leaving balance due contractors of £683 18s. 6d:
less deduction made by contractors, £158 18s. 6d. ; balance paid to contractors,
£525."
At the Council meeting on the 11th December, 1854, the Warden in his
address referred to the Turner and Sinon matter as follows : " The settlement
which took place between the Council and the contractors for the erection of
the County Buildings was done by the following resolution, which was accepted,
as then understood, by the contractors. The resolution reads as follows:
'Sesolved, that Messrs. Turner and Sinon receive the further sum of five hun-
dred and twenty-five pounds as a full consideration for the balance due thereon,
for the erection of the County Court House, Gaol, yards and outbuildings, with
the understanding that the said Turner and Sinon make the doors to the safes
secore against fire, make another cistern to hold forty barrels of water, and
complete the two wells according to first contract, the said amount to be paid
on the first of December next, if the said work shall then be completed.' In
the resolution you see that the contractors were to perform certain work before
leceiving the amount of money contained in the resolution. By sgme means or
other the contractors received the amount without performing the work, all of
which is very much needed ; in fact, actually required. The Council so far saw
the necessity of securing the titles to real estate in the county that they ordered
a door to the safe of the Registry Office at a aost of about fifty pounds, which
amount ought to have been borne by the (sontKiMDk)ra and not by the County. It
would be better for the County if the cotftractoi^iwould not acknowledge this
as a settlement, as the contractors, in my opinion, have in many instances come
far short of their agreement. In the first place; they have not put two feet of
hammered stone in the foundation abovetne surface* of the earth before putting
in the brick, the lack of which has completely failed to give the building proper
elevation. I could mention to you many other shortcomings of the contractors
if necessary ; they are too apparent. Had the work been done in a workman-
like manner, as they were bound to do in their contract, the great expense the
County has been put to in repairing the roof and other parts of the building
would have been saved. No action has as yet been taken by the Council to
accept the buildings under the contract An agreement is entered in the County
book, signed by the Warden on the part of the County, and the contractors, to
the following effect : That the County occupying any part of the buildings is
not to be considered an acceptance thereof under the contract. A considerable
time having elapsed since the supposed settlement, and no part of the work
having been performed by the contractors, I would recommend to the Council
to appoint a committee of three to wait upon the contractors to know if they
acknowledge the settlement ; if so, also to know if they intend to perform the
work, and if so, at what time, in order that the Council may know what course
to pursue."
The Council having then gone into Committee of the Whole on this subject,
the chairman thereof reported the following resolution : " That a committee,
consisting of the Warden, Messrs. Henry and Anderson, be appointed to confer
11
168 HISTOBT OF BRANT COUNTY.
¥dth Messrs. Turner and Sinoo, to learn whether they intend to complete the
Gaol and C!oart House, &c., according to agreement," and on the 12th December
the said committee submitted this report, viz. : " Tour committee appointed to
wait on Messrs. Turner and Sinon, contractors for erecting the County Build-
ings, beg leave to report, that having last evening addressed a note to Messrs.
Turner and Sinon, requesting them to meet the committee this morning at nine
o'clock in the Court £oom, a meeting took place accordingly, and that the con-
tractors then admitted that they considered that the resolution passed by the
Council on the 13th September, 1853 — which is as follows : ' That Messrs.
Turner and Sinon receive the further sum of £525 as a full consideration for
ttie balance due thereon for the erection of the County Court House, Gaol, yard,
and outbuildings, with the understanding that the said Turner and Sinon make
the doors to the safes secure against fire, make another cistern to hold 40 barrels
of water, and complete the two wells according to first contract, the said
amount to be paid on the first day of December, instant, if the work shall then
be completed,' — ^to be a final settlement of all matters connected with the pub-
lic buildings ; and also that they consider that they are bound to perform the
work mentioned in said resolution ; but as to the time that they will complete
the work they have not as yet given a decisive answer. Your committee would
therefore recommend to the Council to urge upon the Building Committee the
necessity of liaving the work completed with as little delay as possibla All of
which is respectfdly submitted. Signed, D. Anderson, Chairman. Committee
Boom, 12th December, 1854"
At the same time H. Phelps presented a petition from the contractors, pray-
ing that the Council would take into consideration losses sustained by them in
the erection of said buildings, and remunerate them for the same, which peti-
tion was referred to a committee composed of the Warden and Messrs. Tennant
and Matthews. This committee submitted the following report next forenoon :
" Having examined said petition, your committee finds that it contains matter
that deserves deep consideration, which at the late period of the present meet-
ing of the Council your committee are unable to bestow. Your conunittee,
therefore, must decline taking any action therein at present, but would recom-
mend that the same be taken into consideration at the next meeting of the
Council Signed, John Tsnnant, Chairman." Accordingly, on the 23rd January,
1 855, a committee of three was appointed to examine the claim of Messrs.
Turner and Sinon, and in submitting their report they recommended the said
petition to the favourable consideration of the Council, and set forth their
reasons for such recommendation, at the same time produced a certificate from
the Treasurer of the County of Elgin to the Warden of this county, setting forth
that the costs of the County Buildings of that county amounted to £11,051 13s.
On the motion being put, however, to have this report adopted, the same was
lost.
On the 19th of June the Council met, when it was moved by Mr. Malcolm,
seconded by Mr. McNaught, as follows : " That in all the representative bodies
it is the duty of the representatives to guard the rights and interests of those
whom they represent; it is also their duty to do justice to all whose interests
are identified with those whom they represent. That Messrs. Turner and Sinon,
the contractors who erected the County Buildings, having made formal applica-
LOCAL HISTORY. 169
«
tion to this Council for remuneration for losses sustained in the erection thereof,
owing to circumstances beyond their control ; that the Council upon said appliv
cation appointed a committee to investigate the prayer of the petitioners ; that
the said committee, having duly examined the same, and made due inquiry
into all the circumstances connected therewith, reported to this Council that
they were strongly impressed with the conviction that the said contractors have
sustained a loss of not less than from £2,500 to £3,500 ; that the said report of
the committee was summarily disposed of by the Council without having taken
time to give it that careful consideration which its merits and importance
d^erve. Therefore, be it resolved that the said report be rescinded in Committee
of the Whole, and that any rule of this Council to the contrary be rescinded, so
far as relates to said report'' The same being put, was carried in the affirma-
tive by a majority of one.
On the day following, on motion of Mr. Boss, seconded by Mr. Elliott, the
Warden and Messrs. Malcolm, Finlayson, the mover and seconder, were appointed
a committee to get two competent, practical persons to value the County
Buildings, in order to ascertain the amount of loss sustained by Messrs. Turner
and Sinon, and report to the Council as soon as possible. This motion was
carried by a majority of two.
At a special meeting of the Council called for the 17th July of same year, the
committee to whom was referred the duty of procuring two competent, prac-
tical persons to value the County Buildings, reported as follows : " That after
giving the subject their mature consideration, they think it would only be
adding expense on the County in employing two persons to value the buildings,
and recommend that the sum so saved, with such other sum as the Council may
think proper to give, be at once handed to Messrs. Turner and Sinon. The
committee are aware that the contractors have no legal claim on the County,
because they have already been paid in full according to the contract, but in
consideration of the great rise in all articles of building, with the extra charge
for labour, the committee would press upon the attention of the Council the
1 propriety of giving such a sum as would, in some degree, help to reduce their
OSS. Signed, Allen Good, Chairman." This report was adopted by a majority
of two.
The opinion of the City Solicitor having been obtained in the matter, the
Warden submitted it to the Council at their afternoon sitting of the same day:
The following is a copy of it : " Brantford, July 17, 1855. Allen Good, Esq.,
Warden, &c. Sir, — In accordance with a resolution of the County Council, passed
this day, requiring my opinion as to the legal right of the Council to vote the
county funds for the purpose of remunerating Messrs. Turner and Sinon, con-
tractors for the erection of the County Buildings, for certain losses alleged to
have been incurred by them in the fulfilment of their contract, such contract
being complied with and carried out by the contracting parties, and consequently
at an end for all the purposes it had in view, I would inform the Council through
you, that after a careful perusal of all the Acts of Parliament conferring powers
upon municipal corporations, and giving them the best consideration in my
power, I can discover no authority or means, even by implication, by which
the Council can levy or raise any sum of money, either by assessment or other-
wise, under the circumstances, unless indeed the alleged losses can be looked
170 HISTORY OF BRA19T COUNTY.
upon in the light or nature of a debt, which is not, as I understand it, pretended
here. If this view could be taken of it, then no doubt could arise, because
express authority is given by the 177th section of the Municipal Act, 12th
Victoria, cap. 81, for the payment of debts, and the mode pointed out for
raising the means to do so. I cannot, however, put 'this construction upon it,
as the term debt implies a legal right to receive and liability to pay. I have
the honour to be, &c. Signed, John Cameron, Solicitor."
It was then moved by Mr. Mullen, seconded by Mr. Whiting, " that as we
have had the legal opinion of our solicitor in relation to making a grant of money
to Messrs. Turner and Sinon, and said opinion is that we have no legal power to
make such a grant, be it therefore resolved that th^ subject be dropped." Car-
ried.
The matter was again brought before the Council on the 29th January^
1856, when a Committee of the Whole reported the following resolution, which
was adopted by a majority of one : Kesolved, that the committee ore fully
aware that l^essrs. Turner and Sinon, the builders of the County Buildings, sus-
tained a severe loss in the erection of the same ; that a committee of mtee be
now appointed, consisting of Messrs. McNaught, Whitlaw and Algar, to inquire
what inducements were held out to them by the late Provisional Building Com-
mittee for remuneration, and to report to this Council at its next meeting."
On 4th March the Council again assembled, when it was moved by Mr.
Malcolm, seconded by Mr. Girvin, and resolved, that a petition be addressed to
the Legislature, signed by the Warden, asking the Legislature to extend to
the Council the power to remunerate the builders of the County Buildings of
the county of Brant, with an addition, after the word rermmerate, of the words
** should the Council deem it right, on examination of the accounts, to do so."
The motion was carried by a majority of only one. On the 16th June Mr.
Whitlaw gave notice to the board that he would, on the Monday following,
bring forward a motion to pay Turner and Sinon " such sum as the Council
may deem right to compensate them in pait for their loss on County Buildings
contract." Accordingly, on the 23rd June, it was moved by Mr. Whiting,
seconded by Mr. Girvin, " that Messrs. Turner and Sinon be paid the sum of
seven hundred pounds currency, at the end of three months, conditional upon
the representatives from each municipality handing in a majority of yeas, and
that when such is done the Warden shall issue his order for the same." The
motion being put, and the yeas and nays called for, resulted as follows:
Yeas : Messrs. Algar, McNaught, Girvin, Patton, Whitlaw, and Malcolm — 6.
Nays : Messrs. Anderson, Mullen, Hedgers, Whiting, and Good — 5. Carried by
a majority of one.
The Deputy Reeve of South Dumfries then laid before the Council a protest
from the Council of that municipality against the Council's granting from the
county funds any sum of money to remunerate Messrs. Turner and Sinon for
alleged losses in the erection of the County Buildings. Similar protests were at
the same time handed in from the municipalities of the townships of Brantford
and Oakland.
The next meeting of the County Council was held on 1st December, 1856,
when it was moved, seconded and resolved, by a majority of one, that the
proper steps for legalizing the grant to Messrs. Turner and Sinon, of seven
LOCAL HISTORY. 171
hundred pounds, be taken by the Warden on behalf of the Council. Yeas :
Messrs. Malcolm, Al^ar, McNaught, Girvin, Whitlaw and Patton. — 6. Nays :
Messrs. Anderson, Mullen, Whitii^, Good and Hedgers. — 5. Also resolved,
with the same yeas and nays, that " should a suit be entered Sj^ainst any
member of the County Council in reference to the grant made to Turner and
Sinon of seven hnndr^ pounds, this Council pledges itself and authorizes him
to defend said suit, and to protect him from any loss in the matter." And
against this resolution the following protest was entered : " The undersigned^
representing the township of South Dumfries and the township of Brantford,
in said county,' solemnly protest against such resolution as improper and illegal.
The undersigned declare their opinion that the Council has no right to expend
the funds oi the Countv in protecting one or more of its members in any
course which may, by tne proper law tribunals of the countrv, be declared
ill^al." Signed, Daniel Anderson, Reeve of South Dumfnes ; William
MiTLLEN, Deputy-Reeve of South Dumfries ; Allen Good, Reeve of Brantford
Township ; John Whitino, Deputy-Reeve of Brantford Township.
On January 26th, 1857, the Council went into a Committee of the Whole on
the subject of the Tamer and Sinon ^ant, and the chairman reported the fol-
lowing resolution, which was adopted : " The Committee of the Whole on the
subject of the grant of £700 to Messrs. Turner and Sinon, beg leave to
report, that having had under consideration the letter of Dr. Connor in relation
thereto, and the action already taken, with a view to cause that sum to be
restored to the treasury of the county, they are of opinion that the best
course for this Council to pursue under all the circumstances connected with
the said grant, is to assume the further and final prosecution of the matter
themselves, by placing themselves in the position of the municipalities which
have already taken action, and thus relieving them of any further responsi-
bility connected therewith ; and that the Clerk be instructed to communicate
to Dr. Connor all such information as he may require to enable him success-
fully to carry out the object in view." A suit was then entered in the Court
of Chancery by the County versms those members of the County Council who
voted in favour of the grant, the plaintiffs obtaining a decree in full with
costs.
At a special meeting of the Council held on 27th May, 1858, a communica-
tion was read from Messrs. Turner and Sinon, setting forth that they were
unable to pay back the sum of £700 received by them at the present time,
and expressing a hope that the Council would extend the payment of the same
over a period of seven years, in equal annual payments, and calling the
attention of the Council to the serious losses they sustained in the erection of
the County Buildings, and the sum of one hundred and thirty-nine pounds
which was deducted from their account on account of yard fences, etc., and
also expressing the hope that the Council would not eid^orce the payment of
the said sum of £700. The Council went into a Committee of the Whole on
this petition, but made no report thereon.
On the 22nd of June following, the Council went into a Committee of the
Whole on a proposition of Charles Whitlaw and others, as follows : " To the
Warden. — ^The prayer of your petitioners humbly sheweth that the grant made
by the County Council of 1856, and paid to Turner and Sinon having been
172 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
declared illegal by the Court of Chancery, and Turner and Sinon being unable
to repay the said amount in cash, but being in a position to secure the County
on real estate, should the pajnnent be divided over five years, payable with
interest. We desire that you will take their proposal under consideration and
act in this matter as your wisdom may dictate. And your petitioners, etc.
Signed, Charles Whitlaw, Wm. Patton, W. N. Algab, John McNaught.
To which the chairman of the committee reported as follows: Kesolved,
''That the proposition made this day by Charles Whitlaw, Esq., and others,
asking for time to refund the £700 granted to Messrs. Turner & Sinon, be
granted, provided always that the security to be given is ample, and that the
Council can legally do so ; and to ascertain which, the Clerk be directed to
obtain the opinion of Dr. Connor, who conducted the Chancery proceedings on
behalf of this county." Which report was adopted by a majority of four.
The opinion of Dr. Connor having been received, the chairman of a Committee
of the Whole reported, on 5th August, the following resolution, viz. : " The
committee of the whole having taken into consideration the opinion of Skef-
fington Connor on the subject of the grant of £700 made to Messrs. Turner and
Sinon, in 1856, would recommend that time be given to the defendants in the
suit for the pa;^ent of the amount of the decree in the Court of Chancery in
favour of this county as follows, that is to say : The costs attending said suit,
and one hundred and thirty-five pounds of the debt to be paid down, and the
remainder in three equal annual instalments, with interest, and any further
costs that may be necessarily made in connection with this matter, to be paid
by the defendants, and that the said S. Connor and the Solicitor of this county
be employed to draw up" the legal documents to carry out the recommendation
of Dr. Connor as conveyed in his letter, for the securing of the debt to the
County ; and also, that the defendants in said suit enter into a bond with the
members of this Council to indemnify them or any of them from and against
all costs or any other liabilities that may grow out of this matter, and that the
Warden, and Messrs. Mullen and Hamilton, be a committee to have the sureties
offered by the parties valued, the assessed value of which is to be at least double
the amount of the debt and costs." The said report having been received, on
motion, the same was adopted. It was further resolved that should the defend-
ants in this case fail in complying with the conditions of the report of the
Committee of the Whole, the Clerk should instruct Dr. Connor to let the law
take its course in the matter. It appears the Council became amply secured
on properties of Turner and Sinon, who ultimately paid back the much debated
£700, with all costs.
Presentation of Flag.
At the County Coimcil meeting held on the 23rd June, 1853, the following
address was read, on the occasion of the presentation of the national flag to
the County of Brant. The address was delivered by His Honour Judge Jones,
and the flag was presented by Mr. Sheriff Smith in behalf of the public officers
of the County of Brant
* To the Warden and members of the Municipal Council of the County of
Brant, in Council assembled. — We, the undersigned, public officers of the County
ot Brant, would respectfully approach your honourable body, and express the
LOCAL HISTOBT. 173
hope that it will not be deemed either amiss or obtrusive in us in having con-
sidered that the public buildings of this fine county should, in common with
those of the other counties of this noble Province, be provided with some
emblem by which our nationality on all public occasions may prominently
appear, and in having procured that which we have deemed most appropriate
and expressive for such a purpose, viz., ' The flag that for a thousand years has
braved the battle and the breeze,' with a view to present the same to the said
county. Presuming that we are right in the expression of our hope, we would
approach your honourable body as the proper medium through which to carry
out the object we have in view, to present to the County of Brant, and pray its
acceptance through you, of this our national flag, which we now do, trustiug
that it may long proudly wave over a free, prosperous and happy people.
Signed Stephen J. Jones, Judge County Court ; John Smith, Sherifi* ; S. S.
Shenstone, Registrar; John Cameron, Clerk of the Peace ; William Murphy,
Inspector ; E. B. Wood, Clerk County Court and Deputy Clerk of the Crown ;
Wm. H. Burns, Kegistrau of the Surrogate Court. Dated June 22nd, 1853."
The flag presented was the British " ensign," or, in the words of Campbell, " The
meteor flag of England."
The Warden's reply was as follows : " Gentlemen, — As the head of the Muni-
cipality of the County of Brant, on behalf of the inhabitants of the county, I
thank you for the presentation of our national flag, through me and the mem-
bers of this municipality, to the County of Brant, as an emblem to be hoisted
upon the splendid edifice, the Court House of the county, by which our nation-
ality on all public occasions may prominently appear ; the flag which is the
national emblem of the most powerful and sympathising nation under the sun,
to which the oppressed of all nations flee for succour and protection, ' the flag
that for a thousand years has braved the battle and the breeze ;' and may it, as
you well express it, long continue proudly to do so over a * free, prospei*ous,
contented and happy people ; * and that it will do so under our noble constitu-
tion, faithfully administered, no one can have any reason to doubt* Eliakim
ilALCOLM, Warden.
174 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
CHAPTER III.
Pioneer Life. — Clearing the Land. — Dwellings. — Horse-
back Travel. — Character of the Pioneers. — Early Set-
tlement.— Pioneer Biographies.
Pioneer Life.
A truthful account of the mode of life among the early settlers of the Cana-
dian forests cannot fail to interest and instruct As the backwoods period
recedes its interest increases. It is to be regretted that more of the traditions
of the pioneers, giving homely but faithful pictures of the every-day life of the
early settlers, have not been preserved. Their recollections of their journeys from
the older states across the lakes, the overland voyages to their future home, the
clearing in the wilderness, the first winter in the rude cabin and the scanty stores
of provisions, the cultivation of com among the roots and stumps, the cabin
raisings and log rolUngs, the home manufacturing of furniture and clothing, the
hunting parties and com huskings, their social customs, and the thousand scenes
and novel incidents of life in the woods, would form a more interesting and
instructive chapter than their wars with the Indians or their government annals.
Far different was the life of the settler in the Canadian forests from that of the
frontiersman of to-day. The railroad, the telegraph and the daily newspaper
did not then bring the comforts and luxuries of civilization to the cabin door
of the settler ; nor was the farm marked out with a furrow and made ready for
cultivation by turning over the sod.
Clearing the Land.
The labour of opening a farm in . a forest of large pines, oaks, maples and
hickories was very great, and the difficulty was increased by the thick growing
underbrush. Not only were the trees to be cut down, but the branches were
to be cut off from the trunk, and, with the undergrowth of bushes, gathered
together for buming. The trunks of the large trees were to be divided and
rolled into heaps, and reduced to ashes. With hard labour the unaided
settler could clear and bum an acre of land in three weeks. It usually
required six or seven years for the pioneer to open a small farm and build a
better house than his first cabin of round logs. The boys had work to do in
gathering the brush into heaps. A common mode of clearing was to cut down
all the trees of the diameter of eighteen inches or less, clear off the under-
growth, deaden the large trees by girdling them with the axe, and allowing
them to stand until they decayed and fell. This method delayed the final
LOCAL HISTORY. 175
clearing of the land eight or ten years, but when the trunks fell they were
asually dry enough to be burned into such lengths as to be rolled together with
ease.
Dwellings.
The first dwellings of the settlers were cabins made of round logs notched
at the endsy the space between the logs filled in with sticks of wood,
and daubed with clay. The roof was of clapboards held to their places by
poles reaching across the roof, called weight poles. The floor was of puncheons,
or planks split from logs, two or three inches in thickness, hewed on the upper
side. The fireplace was made of logs lined with clay or with undressed stone,
and was at least six feet wide. The chimney was often made of split sticks
plastered with day. The door was of clapboards, hung on wooden hinges, and
fastened with a wooden latch. The opening for the window was not unf re-
quently covered with paper made more translucent with oil or lard. Such a
house was built by a neignbourhood gathering, with no tools but the axe and
the frow, and often was finished in a single day. The raising and the log-
rolling were labours of the settlers in which the assistance of neighbours was
considered essential, and cheerfully given. When a large cabin was to be
raised, preparations would be made before the appointed day, and early in the
morning of the day fixed, the neighbours gathered from miles around ; the
captain and comer men were selected, and the work went on with boisterous
hilarity until the walls were up and the roof weighted down.
The cabin of round logs was generally succeeded by a hewed log-house more
elegant in appearance, and more comfortable. Indeed, houses conld be made
of logs as comfortable as any other kind of building, and were erected in such
manner as to conform to the tastes and means of all description of persons.
For large families a double cabin was common ; that is, two houses, ten or
twelve feet apart, with one roof covering the whole, the space between serving
as a hall for various uses. An eminent speaker in referring to the different
kinds of dwellings sometimes to be seen standing on the same farm, as an indi-
cation of the progress of the people, said '' I have often witnessed this gratifying
progress. On the same farm you may sometimes behold standing together the
first rude cabin of round and unhewn logs, and wooden chimneys ; the hewed
log house, chinked and shingled, with stone or brick chimneys ; and lastly, the
comfortable frame, stone or brick dwelling, each denoting the different occu-
pants of the farm, or the several stages of the condition of the same occupant."
The furniture of the first rude dwellings was made of puncheons ; cupboards,
seats and tables were then made by the settler himself. Over the door was
placed the trusty fiint-lock rifie, next to the axe in usefulness to the pioneer, and
Dear it the powder horn and bullet pouch. Almost every family had its little
spinning-wheel for flax, and big spinning-wheel for wool. The cooking utensils
were few and simple, and the cookinc; was all done at the fireplace. The loDg
winter evenings were spent in contentment but not in idleness. There was corn
to shell and tow to spin at home, and the corn huskings to attend at the neigh-
bours'. There were a few books to read, but newspapers were rare, and the
Bible generally constituted the whole of the family library.
176 history of brant county.
Horseback Travel.
With the early settlers almost the only modes of locomotion were on foot
and on horseback. The farmer took his corn and wheat to mill on horseback ;
the wife went to market or visited her distant friends on horseback. Salt, hard-
ware and merchandise were brought to the new settlements on pack-horses.
The immigrant came to his new home not unf requently with provisions, cooking
utensils and beds packed on horses, his wife and small children on another
horse. Lawyers made the circuit of their courts, doctors visited their patients,
and preachers attended their preaching stations on horseback. The want of
ferries and bridges made the art of swimming a necessary quality in buying a
horse for the saddle. "Is he a good swimmer?" was a common question in
bujring a saddle-horse.
Character of the Pioneers.
The ewly immigrants to Brant. County may be described as a bold and
resolute rather than a cultivated people. It has been laid down as a general
truth that a population made up of immigrants will contain the hardy and
vigorous elements of character in a far greater proportion than the same number
of persons born upon the soil and accustomed to tread in the footsteps of their
fathers. It required enterprise and resolution to sever the ties which bound
them to the place of their birth, and upon their arrival in the new country the
stem face of nature and the necessities of their condition made them bold and
energetic. Individuality was fostered by the absence of old familiar customs,
family alliances and the restraints of social organizations. The early settlers of
Brant County were plain men and women of good sense, without the refinement
which luxury brings, and with great contempt for all shams and mere pretence.
A majority of the pioneers belonged to the middle class. Few were by
affluence placed above the necessity of labouring with their hands, and few were
so poor that they could not become owners of small farms. The mass of the
early settlers were U. E. Loyalists, who were compelled by the indignities
heaped upon them to relinquish comfortable homes in the States and seek
homes among the pine forests north of the great lakes.
The backwoods age was not a golden agft. However pleasing it may be to
contemplate the industry and frugality, the hospitality and general sociability
of the pioneer times, it would be improper to overlook the less pleasing features
of the picture. Hard toil made men old before their time. The means ot
culture and intellectual improvement were inferior. In the absence of the
refinements ot literature, music and the drama, men engaged in rude, coarseand
sometimes brutal amusements. Public gatherings were often marred by scenes
of disorder and fighting. Post roads and post offices were few, and the scattered
inhabitants rarely saw a newspaper or read a letter from their former homes.
The travelling preacher was their most cultivated teacher. While some of them
had books and studied them, the mass of the people had little time for study.
Early Settlement.
He who attempts to present with unvarying accuracy the progress of settle-
ment in a country, the history of which extends back through a period of more
LOCAL HISTORY. 177^
than three-quarters of a century, imposes upon himself a task beset with
difficulties on every hand In the-absence of records these difficulties are often
augmented by statements, widely at variance, furnished by early settlers and
their descendants as data from which to compile a true record of the past To
claim for a work of this character perfect freedom from the slightest or in some
cases even grave inaccuracies, would be implying to one's self that degree of
wisdom which alone exists in the councils of the Omniscient. If, then, the
time and place of recorded events in the following pages do not in every instance
agree with the individual opinion of the reader, please bear in mind we have
always inclined to those statements that seem the best supported.
In presenting a list of the early settlers of the county, we feel that injustice
is involuntarily done to others as deserving of mention as those whose names
appear. While using every right endeavour to have the list complete, ther&
must necessarily be some who were only temporary settlers, and after improving
a tract of land, for some reason known only to themselves passed on into other
lands ; and others who, after settling in the country, died, leaving behind them
no record and no descendants from whom a knowledge of them could be obtained.
Of these, if such there were, the most diligent inquiry fails to discover even
their names.
When the settlement of this county began cannot be definitely stated, as the
sources of information differ on that more perhaps than on any other point.
The census returns of 1880 fix the date of the first settlement in the year 1793,
while people yet living tell us of emigrants who entered the country as early as
1780. All agree, however, in the statement that the Township of Burford, or
the territory now known by that name, was the first to receive the attention of
our pioneer fathers. Many causes tended to influence the tide of emigration
toward the Dominion of Canada. But of all these probably the greatest impetus
was given by the people of the States, whose treatment of the King's loyal
subjects in their midst was so cruel and unjust as to cause a general removal of
all those who refused to bow to the " Stars and 8tripes," to a country still
shadowed by the Union Jack. Many of these patriotic heroes crossed over at
Niagara and settled in Brant County ; but of these the greater number, after
remaining a short time, proceeded elsewhere.
In the following list we mention the pioneers in the order of their settlement,.
without prejudice and with the aim of giving to each the credit that is justly
due him. Yet when we remember that nearly a century of time has rolled its
weary way along, is it any wonder if perchance our sources of information fail
to fix a date exactly ?
Prominent among the early settlers we find the WQ3tbrooks. Two brothers,
Alexander and John Westbrook, were captured by the Indians in western New
York or Pennsylvania, while in the woods hunting their horses, about the time
of the American Revolution ; about 1776 they were brought to the territory
now known as Brant County by the Mohawk tribe of Indians, with whom they
lived about three years. They were then taken to the frontier at Niagara and
turned over to the Americans in exchange for prisoners. They at once returned
home, where they had long since been given up as dead, and soon rejoined their
family. Shortly after their return home, and about the year 1780 or 1781,
they persuaded their father to settle on the northern side of the lakes, and
178 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
accordingly the family, consisting of the father, mother, three or four sons and
the daughters, set out for their northern home, which they reached in due time,
settling on Fairchild's Greek. The father and one son here died, and were
interred. Alexander, another son, settled at Brant's Ford, where he built the
first house ; he afterwards moved to Oakland township, and there died. Haggai,
the other son, settled and lived in Oakland township, where he raised a family
and died.
John File, a native of near Albany, New York, of German descent, was one
of the first settlers of the county. When a boy of sixteen years he was ordered
by his father to deliver some beef cattle to the troops of the Revolutionary
army. He was captured, and served through the war. . About 1790 he mar-
ried in Canada, and was one of the first settlers on Fairchild's Creek. During
the ninth decade of the last century he was intimately associated in the
building of two Indian grist-mills, one a half mile west of Brantford and
the other near Newport The first named mill was where the railroad crosses
the Burford Eload, on a small creek only a few feet wide, and was destroyed some
time prior to 1816. John File, the builder, was a pioneer woodsman, and was
among the first to transform the dense forests into open and productive fields.
While thus clearing he at times was so limited with rations that he only had
three potatoes per day, making one for each meal.
The father of the late Bishop Beynolds was one of the earliest settlers of the
county of Brant. With his family he left the Hudson Biver and came into
Canada by the " Mohawk route," and after leaving Lake Ontario, travelled
through the wilderness to the township of Burford, and settled there in the year
1796. He was a sturdy, robust man, full of energy, and with the determination
that seldom allows itself to be balked even by the hidden and untold dangers
of the wilderness in a new and sparsely settled country. The journey from the
Hudson to Burford occupied a little more two months ; it would now occupy
about as many days. Here the family remained until the year 1803, when
they removed to the township of Dorchester, and erected a saw-mill not far from
what is Dorchester Station.
W. K. Smith, another old settler, came from New York State while a young
man, and in the latter part of the eighteenth century settled in the territory now
comprising the County of Brant. He settled in the neighbourhood of Wheeler
Douglas, who is mentioned in this connection. Mr. Smith while here married
one of the daughters of an Indian chief, and by her had two children, viz.: The
late Abram K Smith and Margaret, wife of William Kerby. Mr. Smith got a
grant of 1,200 acres in Brantford Township, on the Grand River, and here lived
to the end of a long and useful life. He built the first mill on Smith's Creek in
connection with Wheeler Douglas, and from this mill the creek derived its
name. The mill was situated up Smith's Creek, just beyond the Brant County
line.
Wheeler Douglas was born at Stephentown, New York, April 10, 1750. He
married in 1771, Martha, daughter of the Rev. John Rathbone, and settled in
Stephentown. In 1780 he removed to Albany where, in company with a cousin
named Wheeler (a nephew of his mother's), he opened a store, and tor several
yeai*8 continued in business, the firm's name being Douglas & Wheeler, About
1798 the property in Albany was destroyed by fire, and he made a journey to
LOCAL HISTORY. 179
Brant's Ford, Canada, where he remained about a year with Capt. Joseph Brant.
In 1799 he. removed to Canada with his family, and settled on the Grand Eiver,
in the midst of Indians, where the City of Brantford now stands. After a few
years he removed about eight miles to the west, where he took up a tract of
about 500 acres, receiving his lease from Capt. Brant There he carved out a
home in the wilderness, and was able to spend his latter years in comparative
comfort, leaving the homestead to his son Stephen. Wheeler and his wife were
staunch Methodists, and their house was the home of itinerant preachers. His
son Stephen, at the age of nineteen, brought into this home, in 1809, the
daughter of an old and prominent itinerant minister who was only sixteen years
of age, and for sixty years they dispensed the same generous hospitality that '
had been found when the older ones had control of the farm and mansion. For
many years preaching was held in their house, and several of their children
were named after the preachers and their wives. Wheeler Douglas died at the
home of his daughter, Harriet, in Smithville, in January, 1829. His wife died
at the same place, Nov. 28, 1837» aged eighty-four years. They had ten chil-
dren, viz.: Content, Martha, Dr. John Hancock, Alanson,Mary, George, Charlotte,
Minerva, Stephen Van Bensselaer and Harriet.
Of Oakland Township's earliest bom sons, Monlecai Westbrook probably
comes first on the list. Be was bom on the 6th of November, 1800. On the
31st of January, 1825, he married Mary Ann Shaver, who died on the 6th of
October, 1847. Mr. Westbrook followed the occupation of farming, and lived
to attain the great age of almost 102 years. He died on the 27th of March, 1882.
The next record of the birth of a prominent citizen of Oakland, is that
of Eliakim Malcolm. He was born in the township on the 19th of December,
1801, and married Samantha Sexton in 1822. She was the daughter of
Jonathan Sexton, a native of Vermont, who came to Canada in 1806. Mr.
Malcolm occupied a prominent position as a citizen of his native township, and
when the district system of municipal government was abrogated in 1852, and
counties organized in their stead, he . was chosen the first Reeve of Oakland to
represent it at the Brant County Council — a memorable event, indeed, for his
posterity to treasure in their memories. He followed the calling of a farmer,
and having passed the allotted span of life, death closed his career of usefulness
ou the 26th of September, 1874. Eliakim Malcolm's name will never cease to
figure prominently in Oakland Township history.
Henry Ellis, another early settler, came from " Big Bend," Susquehanna
Biver, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and settled on Lot 7, east side of Mount Pleasant
Road, on a farm of 200 acres ; he was a weaver by trade, an occupation he fol-
lowed up to his death, in 1831. His farm was the first to exist in the 4,000
acre tract of land, surveyed and laid out by Capt. Joseph Brant, and was at
that time a portion of the Gore District, Township of Haldimand, County of
Wentworth. Mr. Ellis was a Welshman iDy birth, and a descendant of the Earl
of Strambean. He married Margaret Mahan, a native of Donegal, Ireland,
by whom he had several children, four of whom came to Canada, all now
being deceased. Mrs. Ellis died during the War of 1812. A full and complete
sketch of the family appears in the biographical section of this work.
Allin Ellis, son of the above, came to this Province with his father at the
beginning of this century, and was reared on the home farm at Mount Pleasant.
180 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
He was bom at " Big Bend," Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, in 17S8. As
he grew to man's estate he evinced a natural talent for medicine, and in those
days, when the localitv was sparsely settled and regular physicians necessarily
few, he proved himself a valuable friend to many of the sick and afflicted in
health. When the War of 1812 broke out he volunteered in the militia, and
at the battle of Lundy's Lane had charge of a team in the supply train. He
afterwards actively participated in many succeeding events of the war. He
was under the command of Captain Thomas Perrin, facetiously styled " Capt.
Barefoot," from the fact that on training days he indulged in the extraordi-
nary custom of drilling his men in his naked feet This incident gives us a
glimpse of the humorous features of those days, which went far to relieve the
monotony of our forefathers' every-day life. Mr. Ellis married Hannah Sturgis,
a native of Upper Miriam, Chester County, Pa., whose father was a captain in
the War of Independence, under General Washington. They had a family of
twelve children. Mr. Ellis followed pastoral occupations all his life, and died
in September, 1849. His partner in life followed him, February 15th, 1872.
Contemporaneous with the Ellis family came Thomas Sturgis, in 1800. He
was a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and on migrating to this country, took up
land, and during his life engaged in farming.
Amos Sturgis, son of the above, came to Canada with his father and settled
in Brantford Township, near Mount Pleasant He was bom at Upper Miriam,
Pa, and served in the Revolutionary War under Washington. He was the
father of Mr. Allin Ellis, and by occupation a farmer.
Probably the earliest settlers in Oakland Township were the Malcolms, but
following closely after, if not contemporaneous with them, came a family named
Brown, of whom the subject of this brief allusion ia a descendant. Malcolm
Brown and his wife, Mary FairchUd, were both bom in Oakland, the former on
the 17th of November, 1803, and the latter February 15th, 1810. They were
married at Brantford on the 5th of February, 1828. Mr. Brown has hewn
himself a comfortable home out of the wild and rugged forest, and is yet living
to enjoy his well-earned competency. He is fast approaching the ripe age of
fourscore years, and has always followed the occupation of a farmer.
Long before the City of Brantford existed, and the County of Brant had the
shadow of formation, Thomas Perrin arrived at Brant's Ford. All there was
then of the now flourishing city was one log hut, in which Alexander Westbrook
kept a miscellaneous stock of commodities in the grocery line, chief among
which was whiskey. It was located in what is now called King's Ward, or
West Brantford. A rude ferry was the means used to cross the Grand River
at that point. Specimens of this boat, with but slight improvements, are still
in existence, and are the only means by which the river can be crossed in
various places to-day. Mr. Perrin came with his father in 1804, and through
industry and perseverance became the owner of 1,400 acres of land in Brantford
Township, near Mount Pleasant. Choosing commercial rather than pastoral
pursuits, he embarked extensively in milling enterprises, and was the owner
of a grist-mill and two saw-mills on Highland Creek. These he subsequently
sold, and in 1840 removed to the neighbourhood of Mount Vernon. Five years
later he erected a flouring mill on his 'Mount Vernon property, and tor a
number of years did a thriving trade in that line. Railway facilities at that
LOCAL HISTORY. 181
time 'were not available in this county, and teaming was the means by which
he transported his products to Hamilton, the nearest trade centre. Mr. Perrin,
in 1816, married AJDajy A. Peet, a daughter of Arnold Peet, their union being
blessed by seven children: Caroline (deceased), David, Mary A. (deceased),
Kliza J., Andrew (deceased), William, Mary and Daniel. At the time of his
death, Mr. Perrin was a colonel of militia.
Among the earliest settlers in this county were the Westbrooks, and their
•descendants are yet among the oldest and most prosperous citizens. Hiram
Westbrook, the subject of these remarks, was bom in Oakland Township on the
12th of August, 1808, and is a son of Haggai Westbrook, who came to Canada
from New York State about 1780. He married Mary Gates on the 24th of
March, 1831, and had six children, two only of whom are now living. Mr.
Westbrook started out in life on his own account when he was but 16 years of
age^ and with nothing but strong hands and a dauntless determination for
capital, has succeeded in converting what was at that date (1824) a trackless
forest into one of the finest farms in the township. He is still living to enjoy
the fruits of his labour.
Ezra Hawley, a U. E. Loyalist and a native of New York State, came to
Brant County in 1810, and located on 240 acres of land, purchased of a man
named Crume, one of Butler's Bangers, who obtained it of the Indians. Mr.
Hawley brought his wife and a nephew, Abram Hawley, whom he had adopted,
not having any children of his own. They suffered a great deal from the treachery
of the Indians, who thought they were " Yankees," during the first year of their
residence here, and were frequently forced to put themselves under the pro-
tection of their neighbours. Abram Hawley was born at GatskiU, New York,
in 1806, and was four years of age when brought to this country by his uncle.
He inherited his uncle's land, three miles east of Brantford, and resided on it
until his death. He married Jane Barton and raised a family of ten children,
three boys and seven girls, of whom all are surviving except one girl, and three
are residents of Brant County. At the time of their settlement here Mr. Haw-
ley's nearest neighbours were the Westbrooks, who lived on Fairchild's Creek,
where they had located many years previous to his entrance into the county.
J. R. Ellis, Postmaster of Mount Pleasant, was born near that village, Sept.
11, 1811. He is a son of Allin Ellis, and was reared on the Ellis homestead
at Mount Pleasant. Eventually he learned the carpenter trade, at which for a
number of years he continued with success, and erected several fine residences
in his neighbourhood. Subsequently he applied himself to the business of
cabinet-making, which occupied his attention for upwards of forty years. In
September, 1880, he received the appointment of Postmaster of Mount Pleasant,
under Sir John A. Macdonald's administration. He married, Dec. 25, 1844,
Janet Carlyle, a native of Cumberland, England, by whom he had six children.
Mrs. Ellis is a near relative of the late Thomas Carlyle, the renowned English
philosopher and essayist. In politics Mr. Ellis is q. Conservative, and a member
of the Methodist Church.
In the year 1812 the Winegarden family emigrated to Oakland Township.
They were natives of Switzerland. Through hard work and thrift they suc-
-ceeded well at farming. Isaac Winegarden, of Scotland Village, is a descendant
of this family.
182 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
During the stirring times of the War of 1812-14, in which Oakland Township
has historical mention, Isaac Brock Malcolm was bom. He was a son of Findlay
Malcolm, a native of Nova Scotia, who came to this Province early in the pre-
sent or the latter part of the last century. The subject of this paragraph was
bom in Oakland on the 4th of August, 1812. He married Charlotte Smith,
daughter of Isaac Smith, of Ancaster Township, Wentworth County, on the
25th of November, 1835. At that time a great portion of Oakland was still in
its primitive state, and the forests abounded with bear, deer and other game.
Mr. Malcolm was a prominent pioneer citizen, a Reformer in politics, and a
member of the Congregational Church. He was a successful farmer, owning at
the time of his death a splendid farm of 280 acres, upon 100 of which his aged
widow is still living. His children numbered six : Findlay, Charlotte, Fannie,
Abbie, Henry and Isaac. He died on the 2nd of May, 1856.
Another of the pioneer fathers of the county was John Oles, who settled in
Brantford Township at the time of the War of 1812. He took an active part in
the war, and afterwards became a pensioner of that war. He has always, since
his return from the army, made his home in Brantford Township. A sketch in
detail of his life appears elsewhere in this work.
Jacob A. Smith, a native ot Pennsylvania, arrived in this county about the
year 1813, and took up 131 acres of land in Burford Township. By industry
and energy, this hardy pioneer made for himself and family a comfortable home,
and left an honoured name for emulation by future generations; He died in
1853, having attained a hale old age.
Along with the hardy pioneers who arrived in Canada early in the present
century, and laid the foundation of the finest county in Ontario, came George
Cunningham. He settled in Oakland Township, and did his part in clearing
up the wilderness in an eminently successful manner. His wife, when a little
girl, was taken from her parents, who in those turbulent times resided in the
United States, and carried into captivity by a party of Indians on the war-path.
How she was released has not been stated. Mr. Cunningham married her at
Little York, now the City of Toronto. She died several years ago. After
experiencing the vicissitudes of an early settler's life, the subject of this bio-
graphy succeeded in carving a substantial homestead out of the wUdemess, and
is to-day living in the enjoyment of the results of a useful life.
Somewhere about the year 1812 the Messecar family came to the territory
that subsequently formed a portion of this county. They settled in Oakland
Township, and set to work bravely to clear the forest. To-day their descendants
are very numerous in the vicinity of the Village of Scotland. Matthew Mes-
secar, the subject of this brief sketch, must have been very young when he
came to Canada. He first settled in Norfolk County. His wife was a native
of the State of New Jersey, her maiden name being Mary Clouse. He died in
July, 1867.
Stephen Burtch, farmer, Brantford Township, one of Brant County's sturdy
pioneers, migrated to this Province in 1799, first locating at Niai^ara. He was
born at Balltown, Mohawk £iver. New York State, in 1796, and came to this
county in 1813. About the year 1807 he married Margaret Belanger, daughter
of Jacob Belanger, a native of Germany, and had nine children born to him.
He was one of those who in the early history of the county struggled with the
Alfred IhTTs.
LOCAL HISTORY. 186
giants of ibe forest, and moulded a splendid homestead from the wilderness.
Bortch Post Office, in the neighbourhood of his early settlement, was named
after his family. He died in 1833, aged 66 years.
Burford Township numbers among its early settlers Laurence Daniels, a native
of Nova Scotia. He was bom in 1800. When he arrived in the township, in
1813, it was a complete wilderness. He, however, was equal to all emergencies,
and, by unremitting effort, succeeded in overcoming the giants of the forest,
and gained for himself and family a splendid homestead. He was one of the
foremost men in the township during its early history, and for many years
fiDed the office of Justice of the Peace.
WelUDgton McAllister is another pioneer of Burford Township. He was bom,
in 1815, in the township, and as soon as he arrived at years of discretion, took
up land, which he cleami and converted into a homestead for his family. He
was married three times. His first wife was Samantha Brown, married June
2i)th, 1836 ; died July 2nd, 1842, leaving two children, viz,, Welby E. and
Albert H. His second was Elizabeth Smith ; married September 6th, 1843 ;
died April 6th, 1861, and left seven children — Lewis, Sabina (deceased), Owen,
Obedience, Elizabeth, Robert, and Arthur M. His third was Catherine
Silverthom ; married May 6, 1862 : have four children — Charles, Anna, Edith,
and Clara. Mr. McAllister and his two first vrives were members of the Baptist
Church ; his third wife is a Methodist, and is still living.
David Burtch, J.P., farmer, Brantford Township, is one of the county's early
bora sons. He resides on the farm, where he was born November 23, 1815. On
the 30th June, 1835, he married Anna Smith, daughter of Amos Smith, a
native of New York State, to whom were bom six cUldren. Mr. Burtch is a
frominent citizen, and received his appointment of Justice of the Peace from the
dominion Qovemment He is a son of Stephen Burtch, who came to Brant
County from New York State in 1813, and a member of the Baptist Church.
In the early part of the present century, about the year 1806, the Biggar family
arrived in Canada. They came from a place named Biggar, in Scotland, and
first sojourned in Lincoln County, Nia^ra District. Robert Biggar, of whom
we write, subsequently removed his fanuly to Stony Creek, Wentworth County,
where he remained during the eventful years of 1812-13-14, and finally, in 1816,
migrated to this county, and purchased 100 acres of land near Mount Pleasant,
where he permanently resided. He was too advanced in years to serve his
adopted country in the war, but three of his sons actively participated in the
momentous events of that epoch as volunteers in the Militia. His advent to
Biant was an important event, inasmuch as his name has since became a pro-
minent one, and must ever mark the pages of not only the pioneer but general
history of the county. His sons have held positions of honour and trast in the
county, one of them having been a member of the Legislature of Assembly ot
Canada for the South Biding ; another an honoured minister of the Methodist
Church, and for a number of years Treasurer of the county ; and still another, a
useful member of Brantford Township's Municipal Council ; and they were
otherwise largely identified with the material and general progress of Brant He
married in Scotland Amelia Lauder, who bore him eleven children, of whom
James Hamilton and Herbert are still residents of the county. After breasting
successfully the privations and perils incident to pioneer life, and wresting
12
1
186 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
from its primeval wildness a substantial homestead and comfortable surround-
ing, this hardy old settler laid down the burden of life in 1837, and was gathered
to his fathers, leaving behind him an honoured record for emulation bv his
posterity. ^
James Biggar was bom at Biggar, a town in Scotland, in 1803, and came with
his father to Canada in 1806. After halting for a number of years in the
Niagara District, and a six years' sojourn at Stony Creek, Wentworth County,
his father removed to this county, settling near Mount Pleasant, in the year
1816. In 1825, our subject married a lady of the same name as his own, Jane,
daughter of one William Biggar. To them were bom seven children : William
(mentioned elsewhere in this work), Bobert K, Charles, Mary, Eliza, Jane and
Nancy. Mr. Biggar was engaged in farming, having reaped abundantly the
fruits of his labour up to the time of his death, which occurred in August,
1879.
Rev. Hamilton Biggar, ex-Treasurer of Brant County, another son of Bobert
Biggar, was born at Queenston, in the old Niagara District, June 6, 1806. He
came to the county with his father in 1816, remaining only a short time, when
he went to Bay of Quinte to reside with an elder brother. He remained there
until he became of age, and in the meantime attended the District School at
Cobourg, and improved his advantages, limited as they must necessarily have
been in those days, so that he was enabled to enter the ministry of the then
existing Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he continued until the j'-ear
1833, when the two great bodies of Methodists — Episcopal and Wesleyan —
united in one society. The early years of his ministry were devoted to mission-
ary work, a field of labour for which his natural talent and knowledge of the
requirements of the times peculiarly adapted him. Among his marked achieve-
ments in this work was the successful establishment of the Chippewa Indian
Mission at Rice Lake, in 1827. He remained there two years. Subsequently,
for a period af fourteen years, he was stationed on various important circuits,
when he was appointed to the Mohawk Mission, labouring there for four
years. He then became Treasurer of Cobourg College, a position which he filled
for two years. After four years more of ministerial duties on the Grimsby
and Dumfries circuits, Mr. Biggar, in 1852, retired from the regular ministry,
and took up his residence in Brantford. When the County of Brant was
created, 1853, he received the appointment of first County Treasurer, an oflice
he held until 1867, when he resigned, owing to bodily infirmities, and retired
from active participation in the cares of life. In 1832 he married Eliza Racey,
of Mount Pleasant, and had born to him nine children. He died, from the
eflTects of an accident, on the 20th of Febraary, 1883, in the seventy-seventh
year of his age.
Herbert Biggar, farmer. Mount Pleasant, also a son of Robert Biggar, was
bom at Queenston, Canada, January 6, 1809. Upon the removal of his father
to Brant County in 1816, he grew to manhood on the homestead at Mount
Pleasant. About 1838 or 1839 he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in
Brantford, but upon the death of his father retired to the home farm, and has
since devoted himself to agriculture. He has been a member of the Township
Council, and for seven years previous to 1860 represented the South Biding of
Brant in the Legislative Assembly, to which he was elected in the Reform
LOCAL HISTORY. 187
interest. For many years he has been a member of the Independent Order of
Oddfellows^ and a prominent member of the Canada Methodist Church. In
April, 1831, he was united in marriage to Jane Ellis, of Mount Pleasant, by
whom he had six children. She died in 1868, and Mr. Biggar subsequently
married Mrs. Marian Long, of Brantford, who also died, December 15, 1882.
Mr. Biggar still resides on his farm at Mount Pleasant.
One of the most prominent pioneers who held positions of honour in the
county was James lacey. He came from England to Canada in 1803. In
1816 he settled at Mount Pleasant, where he erected a dwelling or cabin, which
in those early days «was considered an elegant affair. He was a Justice of the
Peace for Brantford Township, and has filled the honourable office of Deputy
Judge of the then Gore District. The exalted positions of trust and honour
which it was his privilege to hold stamp him a man of .more than ordinary
talent, and his name will ever take a prominent place on the pages of pioneer
history in Brant County. Mrs. Charlotte Elliot, relict of the late Rev. Adam
Elliot, now residing near Onondaga Village, was his daughter. Her husband
was in charge of the Church of England Tuscarora Indian Mission Church in
Onondaga Township at the time of his death.
Constan Eddy, and Ann Emmonds, his wife, were born in Oakland Township,
the former on the 1st of April, and the latter, September 21st, 1817. They
were married in Oakland on the 7th of November, 1837. Mrs. Eddy died on
the 21st of September, 1848. Mr. Eddy is a successful farmer, and is still
hving. He was the father of Mr. John A. Eddy, the present Postmaster of
Scotland Village.
Daniel Southwick. a native of the State of Massachusetts, emigrated to
Canada, and settled in Burford Township, in 1818. He was bom on the 7th of
June, 1794. He took up land on his advent to this county, and carved him-
self a fine homestead out of the forest, and engaged in farming until his death,
September 30th, 1866.
Thomas Armstrong settled in the Township of South Dumfries in 1818.
His wife was Clariuda Rosebaugh, daughter of John Rosebaugh, of South
Dumfries. She died on the 9th of September, 1861. Their children were John,
Benjamin, Samuel and Thomas (deceased). Mr. Armstrong followed the business
of farming. He died on the 20th ot January, 1868.
About the year 1815 Jonathan Thomas came to Canada from Rutland,
Vermont, and in 1818 settled in the Township of South Dumfries. He pur-
chased land from the Hon. William Dickson, who owned the greater part ot
the township at that time, and commenced his career as a farmer in this
county. His son Sidney Thomas now resides on the same farm. He died in
April, 1869. Mrs. Thomas was a native of the State of New York.
Henry Cunningham, son of George Cunningham, whose sketch appears
elsewhere, vfsa born in Oakland Township in 1819. On the 3rd of March,
1858, he married Hannah Shetland, who still survives him. 'J hey had one
son, Charles, at present residing with his mother. Mr. Cunningham died
October 30th, 1860.
Zacharias Clump came to Canada about 1819, and located on a farm in the
Township of South Dumfries. He was a native of the State of New York, as
was also his wife, who came to this Province about the same time. They were
188 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
married here. Their son, Cornelius Clump, is now residing on the old
homestead.
Another early settler in South Dumfries was Andrew D. YanEvery. He
was a native of New York State, and came to Canada early in the present
•century. Some years later, 1819, he located on a wUd lot in South Dumfries
Township. His wife's maiden name was Nancy YanSellas. She died on the
2nd of December, 1880, having been the mother of 14 children, of whom
Samuel, John, William N., Jane, Malinda, Lemuel, Bachel, Ellen, George and
Mary Ann are still living, and Sarah, Martha, Mary and Wilhelmina are dead.
Mr. YanEvery carried on the operations of farming through a long and not
uneventful life, and died July 25th, 1873.
A year later Lewis German came to the Province and settled in South
Dumfries, 1820. He was a native of New York City. Mr. German was mar-
ried and had four children. Hia wife died on the 10th of May, 1841. He
spent his life in pastoral occupations, and died on the 13th of December, 1859.
Francis Fairchild is a native of Oakland Township. His father and mother
both emigrated from the United States. The subject of this sketch was bom
on the 11th of April, 1820. He married Priscilla J. Harris on the ]l6th of
June, 1842, the children by this union being Melissa, Helen M., James H.,
Francis A., Isaac R, Ruby A. and Alberta, sSl living. His wife dying April
27th, 1862, he married a second time, in 1867, his wife's former name being
Eliza Margins. There are no children by this marriage. Mr. Fairchild is a
farmer, has held a commission as first lieutenant in the Canadian Militia, and
for fifteen years filled the office of deacon of the Baptist Church, of which both
liis wives were members.
Jacob Bonham emigrated to Canada in the year 1806, and settled in the
Township of South Dumfries in 1820. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and
farmed successfully in the land of his adoption until he died, October 9th,
1871. Hid widow, nearly 73 years old, still survives him.
Peter Malcolm settled in Burford Township some time previous to 1820, and
took up land near the YiUage of Scotland. He married Elizabeth Slaught.
They have eight children, viz., Augustus, Myra, Belinda, Hugh, Maiy, Henry,
Ezra and Abigail Mr. Malcolm is a farmer.
Edwin Sayler was a native of Oakland Township. He was bom prior to
1820, and carried on farming successfully. His wife's maiden name was Cath-
arine Mclntyre. He died on the 24th of July, 1856.
Jonah Howell settled in South Dumfries in 1820, and took up a new farm.
Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Mary Waugh. They are both dead.
Nathaniel K Mainwaring located on a new farm in South Dumfries in 1820,
having come from the State of Connecticut in the spring of that year. He
was a successful farmer, and died June 7th, 1852.
Nathaniel E Mainwaring, M.D., of Si George, came with his father to
South Dumfries from Connecticut on the 1st of April, 1820. He was bom on
the 14th of October, 1814, and married Rebecca Stimson, daughter of Dr. Elam
Stimson, of Gait He chose the medical profession for his career through life,
.and has succeeded in establishing a large practice in South Dumfries. He is
still living at St. George.
LOCAL HISTORY.
18»
CHAPTER IV.
County Officers and Representatives to County Council.
Sheriff, — John Smith, of Paris, Ontario, was commissioned first Sheriff,
under Lord Elgin's administration, on the 21st of January, 1853, and is Sheriff
at the present day. ^
C&mUy c/ioi^^.— Stephen James Jones was appointed to this office on the 21st
January, 1853. At this time he was a partner of the law firm in Hamilton,
in which the late S. B. Freeman, Q.C., was associated. Mr. Jones still fills the
ofiice.
County Attorney, — George R VanNorman, Senr., Q.C., received the appoint-
ment in March, 1859, and still holds office.
Clerk of the Petzce. — The' late John Cameron was appointed Clerk >of the
Peace on June 15th, 1853, which office he held up to the date of his death,.
June 15th, 1875. He was succeeded by George R VanNorman, Senr., Q.C.
Deputy Clerk of the Crovm. — ^The late Edmund Burke Wood, for some years
Chief Justice of Manitoba, and who died there in 1882, received the appoint-
ment to this office in January, 1853, and held it for only two years, when he
was succeeded by Duncan Cameron (brother of the late John and Honourable
Matthew Crooks Cameron), in 1856. On the death of Duncan Cameron, in
1861, John M. Goodson was appointed as his successor, and was superseded by
Mr. Walter Rubidge, the present Deputy Clerk of the Crown, on June 4th,
1868.
CUrk of the CourUy Court. — [The notes to the "Deputy Clerk of the Crown"
aie applicable throughout to this office.]
B^istrar, — Thomas S. Shenston, the present Registrar, obtained his appoint-
ment in 1853.
The following is a list of County Officers and Representatives to the County
Council, from the date of the organization of the County up to 1883 :
Yeab.
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
Wardens.
Eliakim Malcolm
<(
Allen Good .
Chas. S. Perley
Daniel Anderson
<c
County Clerks.
John Cameron
ti
it
Treasurers.
Hamilton Biggar
u
{.
u
190
HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Year.
Wardens.
County Clerks.
Treasurers.
1859
Charles Hedgers ....
John Cameron.
Hamilton Biggar.
1860
Thomas C!onboy
«•
<c
1861
William Patton ....
«
C(
1862
Arch. McEwen
«
((
1863
William HuUen . . . .
(C
c<
1864
Charles Hedgers
«
It
1865
John Lawrence ....
«
•
«
1866 William TurnbuU .
((
«
1867
I. B. Henry . . . .
(<
Charles R Biggar.
1868
S. D. Malcolm
«
<(
1869
F. H. Leonard ....
(C
«
1870
Matthew Whiting .
(C
C(
1871
L. B. D. Tiapierre
It
it
1872
Andrew H. Baird .
u
u
1873
W. S. Campbell ....
«
c<
1874
Arch. Harley ....
<c
u
1875
Robert Burt ....
H. McK Wilson.
it
1876
William.Thompson .
€t
Wm S. Campbell
1877
Matthew Whiting
<C
u
1878 ;C. Edmondson ' .
n
1879 iMatthew Whiting .
(C
it
1880
Thomas O'NeaU
(C
It
1881
Thos. W. Charlton
((
a
1882
William Devlin
«
It
1883 iWilUam Roddick
«
u
Mr. Hamilton Biggar resigned the office of Treasurer on the 22Dd June, 1866^
and was succeeded by Mr. Charles R Biggar on Ist July following.
Mr. Johu Cameron died on loth June, 1875, and was succeeded as Clerk on
the 1st of the same month by Mr. Hugh McK. Wilson. For six or seven
months previous to Mr. Cameron's death, and during his illness, the office of
County Clerk was filled by Mr. R. M. Willson, the present Clerk of Brantford
Township CouncU.
Mr. Chas. R Biggar resigned the office of Treasurer on the 11th of March,
1875, and was succeeded by Mr. Wm. S. CampbeU on the 17th of the same
month.
Year.
1853
1854
1855
Auditors.
Solicitors.
A. B. Bennett, R R. Strobridge,
R. R Strobridge. Franklin R Good
James Wilkes, Wellesley Johnstone,
John Cameron.
«
(C
LOCAL BISTORT.
191
Yeab.
Auditors.
SoLicrroBS.
1856
Wellesley Johnstone, Thomas Botham,
John Cameron.
1857
Wm. H. Morgan^ G. Varey,
((
1858
Thomas James, James Grace,
«
1859
Douglass Stevenson, W. B. Hurst,
«
1860
W. D. Soules, " . .
«
1861
John C. Shultz, " . .
u
1862
« n *
tt
1863
James McKay, Eobert McLean,
Allen Good, Wm. D. Soules,
u
1864
«
1865
" Samuel Stanton, .
((
1866
«
((
1867
<< «
u
1868
«< «
tt
1869
« «
it
1870
i( u
It
1871
it if
t
1872
« u
tt
1873
<
tt
1874
« t<
tt
•
1875
David R. Dickson, Wm. Turnbull,
Wilson & Smyth.
1876
(( <<
1877
" Archd. Harley,
tt
1878
Archd. Harley, R. M. Willson,
tt
1879
<c «
tt
1880
' Thomas Newton, "
t<
1881
R M. Willson, Thomas Newton,
tt
1882
u u
tt
1883
(( «<
tt
On 6th March, Mr. James Woodyatt was appointed County Auditor in the
place of Mr. James McKay, removed to United States.
Town of Brantford. — Reeves. — 1853, James Woodyatt ; 1854, D McKer-
lie; 1855-6, John McNaught; 1857-8. Joseph D. Clement; 1859-60, Thomas
Broaghton ; 1861-2, James Wallace ; 1863, James Wevms ; 1864, Jos. Quinlan;
1865, John Elliott; 1866-7, George Watt; 1868, Alfred Watts ; 1869, Francis
H. Leonard; 1870-71, Alfred Watts ; 1872-3, Wm. J. Imlach ; 1874, George H.
Wilkes ; 1875, Alfred Watts ; 1876, Robert Phair ; 1877, John ElUott.
Deputy Beeves. — 1853, James McMichael; 1854, W. Matthews; 1855, John
EUiott; 1856. Alex. Girvin ; 1857-8, Henry Racey; 1859, John Comerford;
1860, James Wallace : 1861-2, Ebenezer Roy ; 1863, Wm. B. Hurst; 1864, Jno.
Montgomery ; 1865, George Watt ; 1866, John Montgomery ; 1867, J. Hum-
burch, H. B. Leeming ; 1868, F. H. Leonard, John Comerford ; 1869-71, Wm.
Paterson, W. J. Imlach; 1872, Robert Phair, Geo. H. Wilkes, William Watt;
1873, K Phair, J. J. Hawkins, B. Hunn ; 1874, J. W. Digby, B. Hunn, George
192 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Watt ; 1875, W. J. Scarfe, B. Hunn, £. Brophey ; 1876, K Brophey, G. H.
Wilkes, T. Palmer ; 1877, J. Ormerod, W. J. Scarfe, J. J. Hawkins.
Township of Brantford. — Seeves. — 1853, Benson Jones ; 1854, H. Phelps ;
1855, Allen Good ; 1857 to 1863, Arch. McEwen; 1863, James Campbell ; 1864,
Wm. Tumbull ; 1865, James Campbell ; 1866 to 1873, Wm. Tumbull ; 1873
to 1876, Wm. S. Campbell ; 1876, Arch. McEwen ; 1877 to 1880, Christopher
Edmonson ; 1880, John Strickland ; 1881, James Reid ; 1882, WnL Biggar ;
1883, Wm. Roddick.
Deputy-Reeves, — 1853, Lyman Chapin ; 1854, John Tennant ; 1855-6, John
Whiting; 1857 to 1860, John Tennant; 1860, Wm. Hunter; 1861, Jamea
Campbell ; 1862, Wm. Hunter ,- 1863, Wm. Tumbull ; 1864, Wm. Hunter ;
1865, Wm. Tumbull ; 1866, Wm. Hunter ; 1867, H. G. Townsend, Geo. Bnrce ;
1868, H. G. Townsend, Wm. Hunter; 1869 to 1873, H. G. Townsend, Wm. S.
Campbell; 1873 to 1876, H. G. Townsend, Chris. Edmondson; 1876, Chris.
Edmondson, Alex. Duncan ; 1877, Alex. Duncan, Thomas Sanderson ; 1878,
Wm. Roddick, James Reid; 1879, Wm. Roddick, John Strickland; 1880,
James Reid, Wm. Biggar ; 1881, Wm. Roddick, Wm. Biggar ; 1882, Wm.
Roddick, Daniel Whiting ; 1883, James A. Smith, Daniel Wliiting.
Township of Burford. — Reeves, — 1853, Charles S. Perley; 1855 to 1871^
Charles Hedgers ; 1871 to 1876, Arch. Harley ; 1876-7-8, Wm. D. Bennett ;
1879 to 1883, Charies Hedgers ; 1883, Thos. Lloyd Jones.
Deputy-Reeves. — 1853-4, Isaac B. Henry ; 1855, Dr. Ross ; 1856, Charles S.
Periey ; 1857 to 1860, Henry Taylor ; 1860 to 1863, Isaac B. Henry ; 1863 to
1867, William Hersee ; 1867 to 1871, J. B. Henry, Chas. Periey ; 1871, Jacob
Bingham, Peter Doran ; 1872, Arch. McDonald ; 1873, Wm. D. Bennett. Ed. H.
Parnell ; 1874, Wm. D. Bennett, Paul Hufifman ; 1875, Whl D. Bennett, Wm.
Lumsden ; 1876, Isaac B. Merritt, Paul Huffman ; 1877, Paul Hufifman ; 1878,
Paul Hufifman, Alex. Mclrvins ; 1879, John T. Muir, Alex. Mclrvins ; 1880-81,
Wm. Bonney, Thomas Lloyd Jones ; 1882-3, Alex. Mclrvins, James Hariey.
Township of South Dumfries. — Reeves. — 1853 to 1870, Daniel Anderson ;
1870, Wm. Mullen ; 1871 to 1876, Roberi; Burt ; 1876-7, James Deans ; 1878,
L. B. D. Lapiere ; 1879-81, Thos. W. Charlton ; 1882-3, Alfred Kitchen.
Deputy-Reeves.— 1853 to 1869, Wm. Mullen ; 1869 to 1875, Lewis B. D.
Lapiere ; 1875, James Deans ; 1876-7, Alfred Kitchen ; 1878, Thomas W.
Chariton ; 1879-81, Daniel Burt ; 1882-3, John McRuer.
Township of Onondaga. — Reeves. — 1853, Geo. Yonell ; 1854, W. N. Algar ;
1855, Mulligan; 1856, W. N. Algar; 1857 to 1861, Thos. Conboy ; 1861,
Matthew Whiting ; 1862, Richard Harris; 1863 to 1866, Matthew Whiting ;
1866, Bradshaw McMurray ; 1867-8, Wm. Hamilton; 1869 to 1883, Matthew
Whiting ; 1883, Alexander Douglas.
Township of Oakland. — R^ves. — 1853 to 1857, Eliakim Malclom ; 1857^
Charies Chapin; 1858 to 1863, WilUam ThompsoA; 1863, John Eddy;
1864, S. D. Malcolm ; 1865, Eliakim Malcolm ; 1866, Wellington McAllister ;
1867-8, Shubael D. Malcolm ; 1869, Charies Chapin ; 1870 to 1874, William
Thompson; 1874-5, Smith Beebe; 1876, William Thompson; 1877, Smith
Beebe ; 1878-9, Eliakim Malcolm ; 1880, William Devlin, present incumbent
Town op Paris. — Reeves, — 1853, Charles Whitlaw ; 1854, Hiram Capron;
1855, Hugh Finlayson ; 1856, Charies Whitlaw ; 1857, Hiram Capron ; 1858,
LOCAL HISTORY.
193
Hugh Finlayson; 1859, Norman Hamilton; 1860-61, Wm. Patton ; 1862 to
1867, John Lawrence, M.D. ; 1867-8, Norman Hamilton ; 1869-70, John Law-
rence, MLD. ; 1871-2, Andrew H. Baird ; 1873-4. Henry Hart ; 1875-6, A. H.
Baird ; 1877, Thomas Hall ; 1878-9-80, Thomas O'Neail ; 1881, David Brown ;
1882-3, Robert Thomas.
Deputy lUeves.— 1853 to 1856, none ; 1856, Wm. Patton ; 1857-8, Norman
Hamilton ; 1859, Charles Arnold ; 1860-61, John Lawrence, M.D. ; 1862, Nor-
man Hamilton ; 1863 to 1867, Robert Thomson ; 1867, Heniy Hart ; 1868 to
1871, Andrew H. Baird; 1871, Robert Thomson; 1872, Matthew X. Carr;
1873-4, Geo. Angus ; 1875, Robert Patterson ; 1876, Thomas Hall ; 1877, Thos.
O^Neail ; 1878, Henry Hart ; 1879-80, David Brown ; 1881-2, John Arnold ;
1883, James H. Hacldand.
194 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
CHAPTER V.
£ducational. — Institute for the Blind. — Young Ladies^
College of Brantford.
Educational.
Bt M. J. Kbllt, LL.&, M.D.
The progress of public education in Ontario during the last thirty years has
been very great. Nowhere else on this continent is the system of popular
instruction more satisfactory and symmetrical. In 1851 the comer stone of
the present Normal and Model School buildings in Toronto was laid by the
Earl of Elgin, then Grovemor-General of Canada, and one of the most accom-
plished Viceroys we have ever had. In 1852 they were opened with imposiog
ceremonies. Another Normal School — ^a fine stone structure — was erected in
the Ci^ of Ottawa a few years ago to supply the wants of the eastern section
of the Province, and subsequently a Model School was added. From these
Normal Schools thousands of teiskchers have been graduated to supply the
49chools of Ontario, and to introduce therein the - latest and most approved
methods of instruction. The number of Public Schools in the Province is
about 5,000. These are all free ; the number of High Schools and CoU^ate
Institutes about 100. In some of these a small term fee is charged the pupils ;
in others the tuition is free. In the Public Schools pupils are prepared for
entrance to the High Schools and Collegiate Institutes, and in the latter for
matriculation into the Universities and learned professions. The chartered
Universities are eight in number : The Ottawa Ijniversity (RC.) ; Queen's
University (Kingston, Presbyterian) ; Regiopolis (Kingston, RC.) ; Albert
(Belleville, Methodist, K) ; Victoria (Cobourg, Methodist, CM); Toronto
University (Toronto, non-denominational) ; Trinity (Toronto, Church of
England) ; Western University (London). In addition to these a School of
Practical Science has been established in Toronto, the structure for its accom-
modation being adjacent to University College, and costing something over
$30,000. This is for the better instruction of engineers, surveyors and
mechanics in technical knowledge. Upper Canada College, in the same city,
is our oldest, best known and most richly endowed institution of the High
School class. These, together with St. Michael's College, Knox CoU^,
Wydiffe CoUege, and the McMaster Hall, recently erected in the University
grounds, mostly through the munificence of Senator McMaster, are now in
affiliation with the University of Toronto.
LOCAL HISTORY. 195
In 1871 the total number of students connected with the University was
244, of whom only 172 were matriculated ; in 1881 the number had risen to
351, of whom 295 were pursuing the full course for the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. This increased attendance at our highest Provincial seat of learning
(and the attendance at the denominational universities has been pari pasav^
serves to show how much the eflBbiency of the High Schools of Ontario has
improved in the interval. But this is not all. To the same period are we
indebted for the foundation of the Agricultural College at Guelph, the Insti-
tute for Instruction of the Blind at Brantford, the Institute for Instruction of
the Deaf and Dumb at Belleville, the Koyal Military College at Kingston,
all, except the last, Provincial institutions; Pickering College, and colleges
for the higher education of young ladies at Ottawa, Whitby, Brantford and
St Thomas, denominational institutions. These evidences of Provincial
progress in education are apparent in every county. In the matter of Public
and High School accommodation there has been a remarkable change for the
better. Take the Countj of Brant as an example. In South Dumfries, in
the ten years interval mentioned above, new brick scliool houses of a very
superior class, and of varied styles of architecture, have been built in school
sections Nos. 2, 6, 10, 7 and 27 ; in Brantford Township, in Nos. 1, 7, 8, 9, 10,
12, 13, 16, 17, 20. 22, 23 ; in Onondaga, in Nos. 5 and 6 ; in Oakland, in No. 4 ;
in Burford, in Noa 4, 8, 9, 11, 20, 21, 22 and 23. Many others have undergone
repairs. The .school grounds, too, have for the most part been enclosed and
much improved by the planting of maple and evergreen trees. As further
evidence of progress, consider the increase in school libraries. During the
same time new libraries have been established in school sections Nos. 3, 5, 6,
10 and 27, South Dumfries ; in Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8, 9. 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19.
20, 22 and 23, Brantford ; in Nos. 2 and 6, Onondaga ; in Nos. 1 and 4, Oak-
land ; in Nos. 3, 8, 16 and 25, Burford. The equipment of the schools, outside
of the libraries, has also been much improved ; museums (in a few instances),
clocks and bells, better maps and globes have been furnished, and books of
reference, such as Worcester's Pronouncing Dictionary, and Beeton's or Cassell's
Biographical Dictionaries. The number of volumes in the Public School
libraries of the county is 5,678. The Mechanics' Institute Library at St.
George has over 600 vols. The Paris Mechanics' Institute Library has 3,500
vok, and that of Brantford about 4,500 vols. To the last two reading rooms
are attached, which are well supplied with magazines and newspapers, are
open to subscribers and strangers every week day, and are well patronized.
Before 1852, what is nowtheCountyof Brant had no existence as aseparate and
distinct municipality. Previous to this time the Public Schools (then called
Common Schools) were under the supervision of District Superintendents, of
whom the late Patrick Thornton, Esq., of Dundas, is the best known. Mr.
Thornton had been for many years an exceptionally successful teacher in .
Hamilton and elsewhere, in the old Gore District, before hi§ appointment as
superintendent. He was a well informed gentleman, of a fine presence and
agreeable manners. After the formation of the county, local superintendents
were appointed usually one for each township. Of these, the Rev. John Dun-
bar, late of Glenmorris, and now resident in Dumbarton, County of Ontario,
'was longest in office, and held for a number of years the position of Chairman
196 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of the County Board of Education, of which the principal duty was the exami*
nation of teachers. In 1871, an Act was passed oy the Provincial Legislature,,
which has made great and radical changes in the system of public instruction
in Ontario. This Act provided, among other things, for the appointment of
County Inspectors of Public Schools ; and on June of the same year, Dr. M. J.
Kelly, of Brantford, was selected for that office. Of the teachers in the county
at the time of its formation and before that period, the following may be men-
tioDed : Messrs. W. £. Wilding, Jno. McLean, Senr., John McLean, Junr., T.
B. McLean, C. Devine, Wellesley Johnson, Thomas James, Thomas Potts, Senr.,
Orpheus Robinson, David Baptie, Oliver O. Kenny, and John Patton. None
of these are now in the profession. The Township of Onondaga and a large
portion of the Township of Brantford were originally an Indian Beserve, and
therefore the history of education in these dates somewhat later than in the
other townships. Captain White was the first teacher in the Township of
Burford. He taught in a log school house which stood near the residence
of C. P. Fowler, on Burford Street. This was from 1808 to 1811. In Onondaga,,
the first school was established on the farm of Thomas Gilmore in the year
1841, and was taught by a Mr. Shannon. The second was founded in 1842,.
near the mouth of Big Creek, and was conducted by Mr. David Dick. The
first school in what is now the City of Brantford was held in a two>story
frame building erected on the market square, and which served for town hall,
court room, mee^iing house and school house. This was about 1826. In 1850,
the west wing of the present Central School was erected, and three years later
the three ward school houses.
The first Grammar School (the names *' Grammar " and '* Common Schools "
were changed to •* High " and " Public Schools" by the Act of 1871) in Brant-
ford was held in a small frame cottage on Nelson Street, where the fine resi-
dence of J. H. Stratford, Esq., now stands. This was taught by Mr. Tyner, an
honour gi-aduate of Toronto University, in 1853-4-5. In 1857, the Grammar
School was united with the Common Schools of the town, and remained so for
nearly ten years, when a separation took place. Since then the High School
has become a Collegiate Institute ; the small brick cottage in the East Ward,,
with its two teachers, has been exchanged for the present elegant and com-
modious structure on George Street, with a staff consisting of a head master,
a first and second classical master, a first and second mathematical master,
a master for the modem languages, an English master, and a teacher of paint-
ing and draw^ing. The number of students in attendance is nearly 300. In
1852, there were three public school houses in Brantford, with six teachers, and
a total enrolled attendance of 785 pupils. In 1882, there were four school
houses — superior brick buildings — with twenty-nine teachers, and an enrolled
attendance of 2,038 pupils. The average attendance at the first date was 324»
or 41 percent. ; at the last date it was 1,400, or 69 per cent The amount paid
in salaries in 1852 was $1,860 ; last year it was S9,027.78 ; the amount
received from Legislative and Municipal grants was $1,272, against $14,48S
from the same sources in 1882. The Town of Paris has four school houses,
three of brick and one of concrete. The High School has been for a great
number of years united with the Public Schools. The head master of the High
School, Mr. J. W. Acres, B.A., has held the position since 1857. The Central
LOCAL raSTORY. 197
School bailding in which the High School departments, two in number, are
sitoatedy is erected on an elevation of considerable height, and commands an
extensive and beautiful view of the town aad surrounding country. Of the
three ward schools that in the King's Ward, a two-story brick building,
recently erected, i|^ much the best There are nine departments in the Public
Schools, with nine teachers. The amount paid in salaries 30 years ago (Paris
was then a village), was $1,237 ; now it is $4,677.97.
In the rural sdiools of the county in 1852, the amount received in Legisla-
tive and Municipal grants was $3,080 ; last year it was $5,070. Salaries paid
then, $11,402 ; salaries paid now, $23,851 ; total enrolled attendance then,
3,334, now it is 4,375 ; average attendance, 1,762 in 1852 ; in 1882 it was
2y302. In 1852, two nural school houses were brick, forty-six frame, and ten
log. In 1882, there were, brick,f orty-five ; stone, two ; concrete,four ; frame, nine-
teen ; log, one. About 25 years ago, Grammar or High Schools were established
in the Villages of Mount Pleasant and Scotland ; these were closed about seven
years aga In addition to the Public and High Schools of the county, there is
in the immediate vicinity of the City of Brantford, the Institute for the Blind,
a provincial establishment well worthy of a visit ; and within the cily, tha
Brantford Teung Ladies' College, most delightfully situated on Brant Avenue.
The buildings and grounds, in architectural finish and artistic beauty, are imsur-
passed in Ontario. The College is in a very flourishing condition. The record
of the schools of the county would not be complete without some reference to
those established for the instruction of the Indians on the Beserve. These
8chools are supported by the New England Company, the Six Nations, and the
Indian Department at Ottawa. The first grant of the New England Company
for Indian school purposes was made to Captain John Brant, son of the great
chief, in 1822. This was for the erection of the " Mohawk " school house, near
the old church, and the ** Oneida " school house in Cainsville. The school-
master's house is stiU standing on the right-hand of the road as you go from
Brantford In 1832, at the time of Captain John Brant's death, the New
England Company supported seven schools on the Beserve, In 1850, the
Mohawk Institute was established " for teaching handicraft trades." In 1853
it became a boarding school for ten boys and ten girls. Bebuilt in 1859, it was
subsequently enlarged, and it has for many years accommodated forty-five boys
and forty-five girls, who are all boarded, lodged, clothed and educated free of
chai^ During the four years ending Slst December, 1881, one hundred and
fifly-six Indian boys and girls Lad passed through the Institute. Of this estab-
lishment and the schools on the Beserve, the missionaries (C. K) appointed by
the Company had control The Bev. Bobert Lugger had charge from 1827 to
1837 ; Bev. Archdeacon Nelles from 1837 to 1872. Since the last date Mr. R
Ashton has been superintendent. The number of school houses on the Beserve
at present, and supported by the Company, is eight. The total number of pupils
enrolled for 1882, was 477 ; average attendance, 155 ; number examined, 197;
number promoted, 116. The expenses of these schools are defi:ayed as follows :
New England Company's Annual Grant, $1,500 ; Six Nations' Annual Grant,
11,500 ; Indian Department, Ottawa, Annual Grant, $400. Attached to the
Institute is a laige farm on which the boys are taught practical agriculture. The
expenses are kept well within the receipts.
198 history of brant county.
Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Bund.
A rising ground to the north-west of the City of Brantford, at the distance of
a mile from Colborne Street, is the site of oue of the noblest public institutions
of the Province, the Ontario Institution for the Education %nd Instruction of
the Blind. Shortly after the confederation of the British North American Pro-
vinces and the concession of local self-government to each and all of them, it
became evident that the revenues of Ontario from the public demesne, and the
subsidy received annually from the Dominion, would exceed for some years to
come the expenditure for current purposes of government. It was the proba-
bility— soon to become an accomplished fact — of a considerable surplus accru-
ing in the hands of the Provincial Treasurer, that suggested the alleviation of
human suffering on the one hand, and the amelioration of private and municipal
burdens on the other, by the erection of additional asylums for the lunatic and
idiotic, and of institutions for the education of the blind and the deaf and dumb
population, to be supported largely, if not altogether, at the expense of the pub-
lic treasury. At that period the accommodation for lunatics was far too limited;
for the care and training of idiots there existed no public provision whatever,
and the education of the blind and the deaf and dumb, was left entirely to
private enterprise on a very small scale, wholly inadequate to the wants of the
community. The first vote of the Legislative Assembly for the purchase of a
site and the erection of an Institution for the Blind, amounting to $75,000, was
submitted to the Legislature by the Goveniment of the Hon. John Sandfield
MacdDnald in December, 1869. One of the vexed questions of the day was
whether the sites of and estimates tor the projected public buildings should be
presented beforehand for the approval of the Legislature, or whether the Govern-
ment should effect purchases and issue contracts as executive acts, subject
only to their general responsibility to the House and country. The journals of
1869 contain evidence of this controversy, in which, however, the Government
was sustained by large majorities. The Treasurer of the Administration was
the Hon. Edmund Burke Wood, the late Chief-Justice of Manitoba, who then
represented the electoral division of South Brant in both the local and federal
Parliaments. It wa6 probably due to Mr. Wood's influence that Brantford was
selected as the site of the Institution for the Blind, although the soundness of
the judgment which ratified his choice has scarcely been called in question.
The estate purchased by the Government was known as the Digby Farm, 65 J
acres in extent, the southerly and larger portion being flat and suited for agri-
cultural purposes, \yhile the rear, or north-westerly portion, is on an elevation
which commands a view of the city to the south-east, of the Grand River, which
forms a bold curve at a short distance from the western boundary, and, as a
whole, of one of the loveliest landscapes in Canada, which, if the blind are
debarred from its contemplation, is a never-ceasing object of delight to all
others. Of the healthiness ot the situation, with its dry, sandy soil, there is no
doubt, and even a little bleakness and inclemency are more than atoned for by
the invigorating and bracing influences that are secured in return for these
slight drawbacks.
The main building, with its frontage of some three hundred feet and central
tower, is in the " Tudor " style of architecture, having to the rear an extension
LOCAL HISTORY. 199-
two hondred and fifty feet in length, in which are situated the servants' apart-
ments, kitchens, store-rooms, bakery, laundry, and engine and boiler rooms, the
latter being the source from which the whole of the vast edifice is warmed by
steam, and supplied throughout with hot water.
A little to the west and rear of the main building are the workshops, where
the male pupils are instructed in willow-chair and basket work, and behind
these again are the farm buildings. To the east of the main building at some
little distance, and near to the Paris Road and Grand Trunk Bailway, are the
houses of the Principal and Bursar, while at the entrance to the grounds from
Palmerston Avenue is the cottage of the Chief Engineer.
Ten years ago the hill on which the Institution stands was a treeless waste.
But great progress has been made in its ornamentation, and in summer, when
the numerous trees are in leaf, it presents a delightful and picturesque appear-
ance. Traveller^ by the Norwich and Tilsonburg Eailway, or upon the Burford
Boad, obtain the best view of this beautiful site and its commanding structure.
From half to two-thirds of the estate is under cultivation, and produces,
besides a quantity of fruit, all the roots and vegetables required for the Institu-
tion and the farm stock. A spring on the grounds gives, by means of tanks
filled by a powerful pumping engine, an inexhaustible supply of the .purest
water. The circumstances of the blind require arrangements of a special
nature, in which ample space and perfect safety are combined, for their exercise
and recreation. These are secured by broad plank walks traversing the grounds,
in various directions, and used by the male and female pupils respectively. The
latter are, under certain restrictions, allowed to visit the city, and the. whole of
the pupils, in charge of guides, attend Divine Service at the churches of their
several denominations on Sunday forenoon.
The staff of the Institution consists of a Prii^cipal, Bursar, five teachers in the
hterary department, five in music, two instructresses, and two assistants in
machine and hand-sewing and knitting respectively ; a trades instructor at the
head of the m^le pupils' industrial department ; a matron who takes charge of
the whole domestic arrangements ; two nurses, thirteen domestic servants, an
engineer with two assistants, a carpenter, baker, gardener or farmer, and two
&rm hands, and a physician who attends daily to all cases requiring his advice
or assistance.
The annual appropriation for maintenance afnounts to nearly $33,000, and
up to the dose of the last financial year the expenditure on capital account
had exceeded S200,000. While any improvements suggested by experience
vre effected in a liberal spirit, the building as a whole is well adapted for its
designed purposes. The wide and well-ventilated corridors, numerous class-
rooms, and warm but airy dormitories, the large music hall, with its fine pipe-
organ, meet, in a large degree, the necessities of the class in whose behalf the
Institution has been established. The Institution opened in May, 1872 (the Hon.
Edward Blake's Government being then in power), with 7 pupils, and at one
period contained a pupil population of no less than 182. At the present time the
latter consists of 77 males and 64 females, or a total of 141. The first Prin-
cipal was Dr. E. Stone Wiggins, now of the Finance Department, Ottawa ;
he was succeeded in 1874 by Mr. J. Howard Hunter, M.A., formerly well
known in connection with the High School system of the Province, and now
200 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY
Inspector of Provincial Insurance Companies ; and that gentleman again, in
April, 1881, by the present Principal, Mr. A- H. Dymond, for some years on the
editorial staff of the Toronto Glche^ and member for the North Riding of York
in the Dominion Parliament In common with other public institutions, the
Blind Institute is under the direction of the Department of Prisons, Asylums
and Charities. From a table appended to the Inspector's Report for 1881, it
appears that up to the 30th September of that year 168 male and 140 female
pupils — 308 in aU — ^had been admitted to the benefits of the Institution. Of
these, 77 were returned as having been born blind ; 62 became blind when less
than one year old ; 157 at ages from one to twenty, and 9 when over twenty,
while of 3 there is no record.
The object of the Institution is, not to provide an asylum for the aged and
helpless, but to secure for the blind youtn of the Province instruction they
cannot, by reason of their physical defect, receive at the Public Schools. The
Institution is, in fact, supplementary to the admirable Public School system
which has made Ontario famous, and done her statesmen so much honour;
Any young person between seven and twenty-one years of age, resident in the
Province of Ontario, in reasonably good health, and without any other physical
defect than blindness, who, by reason of such blindness or impaired vision is
unable to be educated by ordinary methods, may claim admission. Adults
are only admitted under very special circumstances and by the direct authority
of the Grovemment Inspector, their presence being found objectionable in
most cases in an institution primarily devoted to the education of the young.
From the report recently issued for 1882, it is shown that during the present
session 77 of the pupils receive instruction in music, vocal or instrumental ;
31 are instructed in machiue and hand knitting, 41 in sewing and needle
work, and 30 youths in willow work, while, with the exception of about five-
and-twenty, all the pupils take lessons in some or other of the literary classes.
The subjects embraced under the latter head are : arithmetic ; grammar and
correct languge ; geography, taught objectively by the aid of raised sectional
maps ; reading in embossed type and point print ; English literature, com-
prising a knowledge of leading authors and poets, from Chaucer onwards ;
writing in point print and ordinarv. letter; history; object-lessons, including
natural history in its various branclies ; and chemistry as applied to common
things. In the musical department are classes in the pipe organ, in vocal
music, in composition, harmony, theory, etc., in music writing by the point
print method, and in the pianoforte, reed-organ and violin. The industrial
work comprises machine-knitting, which is found to be a most useful and
practical form of employment for the blind ; hand-knitting, in which most of
the female and a few of the male pupils take an interest ; machine-sewing,
including the use of all the machine attachments ; hand-sewing, cutting-out and
fitting ; bead, crochet, and other fancy work ; pianoforte-tuning, for which
many pupils have a decided talent ; and willow work. The latter is a specialty
of the Brantford Institute, the system of models by which blind persons are
enabled to make chairs and baskets of various kinds being largely due to the
ingenuity and enthusiastic devotion to the work of blind instruction of Mr.
Thomas Truss, the Trades Instructor. Blind youths who graduate as skilled
workmen from this department receive, subject to genend good conduct, an
^Y^
P"Bi<: LIBRARY
LOCAL HISTORY. 203
outfit of models and materials, of from $80 to SlOO in value. Not a few young
men in different parts of the Province are earning an excellent livelihood in
this line of business, their success having its ori^n in the training and encour-
agement received at Brantford. The ori^nal mtention of the Government
was to exact an annual ^payment for each pupil's maintenance from friends
-or from municipalities. But these arrangements were so often abrogated in
practice that nothing beyond a provision of requisite clothing and travelling
expenses is now required, board and instruction being virtually free. The
institution is an object of great interest to the citizens of Brantford, who are
ever ready to exchange courtesies with its officers and pupils, and attend the
periodical concerts given by the latter in large numbers. The session lasts
from early in September to the middle of the following June. A three months'
holiday is given in the summer. All the pupils are removed during the
vacation. During the session visitors are admitted in school hours on simply
presenting themselves any day in the week except Saturday and Sunday, and
are conducted through the w£ole building and class-rooms by a blind but most
intelligent lady attendant.
The Toung Ladies' CJollege.
The Brantford Young Ladies' CioUege (in connection with the Presbyterian
Church of Canada) was organized March 24, 1874, and incorporated by Letters
Patent, dated Sept. 16, 1874, with an authorized capital of $60,000. A public
meeting was held in the City Council Chamber on the 24th March, 1874— Rev.
Wm. Cochrane, D.D., in the chair — to consider the advisability of establishing
such an institution. Several prominent gentlemen of the city favoured the
undertaking, and the following resolutions were unanimously carried : " That
in the opinion of this meeting it is highly desirable that a Ladies' College be
established in Brantford ; that it is desirable that as a guarantee of the edu-
cational and laoral training of the pupils, said CoUege should be in connection
with one of the Evangelical denominations ; and that as the Episcopal, the
Methodist and the Baptist Churches have already successfully established such
iostitutions in Ontario, it is considered advisable that the said College should
be in connection with the Presbyterian Church." A committee was appointed,
with Mr. A. Bobertson as chairmau, to give effect to the above resolution, and
on the 12th May following the College was formally organized, with the follow-
ing as the first Board of Directors : — A. Bobertson, Manager Bank of British North
America, President ; H. W. Brethour, Vice-President ; James Eer, Treasurer;
B, F. Fitch, Secretary ; Wm. Watt, Senr., Kev. Wm. Cochrane, Alex. Bobertson
(Brant Avenue), Greorge H. Wilkes, and Thomas McLean.
The handsome residence and grounds of the late Hon. £. B. Wood, Chief
Justice of Manitoba, wei-e purchased for College purposes, and the building
extended so as to give suitable accommodation for about eighty boarders, at a
cost of about $50,000. The inscription stone of the building was laid by Her
Excellency, the Countess of Dufferin, on the 24th August, 1874, and the Col-
lege was formally opened in the following October. The first Principal was
Wm. Clarke, M.I). He was succeeded by Eev. A. F. Kemp, M. A., LLD., who
was followed in 1878 by the present Principal, T. M. Macintyre, M.A., LLB.
13
204 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
For seveial years the Bev, Wm. Cochrane, M.A., D.D., who took a very active
part in the founding of the College, was associated with the staff as I^sident
of the Faculty.
The College is now well established and equipped, and both in its literaiy
course and^in tiie* departments of music and fine arts, it has taken first rank as
an institutidli*for''the higher education of ladies. The literary course extends
over threle yeHTB, snd students completing their course satisfactorily are awarded
diplomas. The iKSUal examinations are conducted by outside examiners ap-
pointed by the Board of Directors ; and since 1879 the University of Toronto
has held local examinations in the College for students who prepare themselves
for the University groups of study. During the past four years twenty-five
young ladies have passea this satisfactory test of scholarship. His Elxcellency
the (^vemor-General gives annually a' silver medal for competition in the Uni-
versity studies, and the College was visited in 1880 by the M^uis of Lome
and BLer Royal Highness the Princess Louisa On that occasion the Princess
presented the Gtovemor's medal to the successful candidate. The session now
in progress is the most prosperous in the history of the CoUe^; Studente are
attracted to it from all parts of the Dominion, from British Columbia to Nova
Scotia and from the United States. The following is the present Board of
Directors : President, A. Boberteon, Manager Bank of British North America ;
Vice-President, William Buck ; Secretarv, H. B. Leeming ; Treasurer, Thomas
McLean ; William Watt, Wm. Nichol, KD., Robert Heniy, Charles B. Heyd,
and Geoi^ Foster ; Visitor and Honorary Director, Rev. Wm. Cochrane, D.D.
LOCiLL HIST0R74 205
CHAPTER VL
The Press. — Medical Profession. — Bench and Bar.
The Press.
The first journal published in Braniford was a small paper called the
Sentmd; it represented the Conservative interest, and was edited by Mr.
Eeeler. It lasted two years. On December the 5th, 1834, Mr. Thomas
Lemmon arrived in Brantford from Ireland, and the Sentind was merged in a
larger and more ambitious paper, the Courier, In the columns of this paper
appeared many clever articles from the pen of Mrs. Keeler, a daughter of Mr.
Thomas Lemmon, now Mra Hart. Mr. Eeeler subsequently went to the
States ; Mr. Lenmion, the elder, survived some ten years, the Courier being
carried on in the names of Thomas Lemmon & Son. The Conservative party
in the neighbourhood of Brantford was at that time by no means the strongest,
yet the Courier steadily won its way ; several of the ablest writers in this part
of Canada contributed to its pages. The Courier has held its own for forty-
six years, and has had to eompete with other Conservative papers. This paper
has been several times enlarged. At its first appearance it was a small sheet
of six columns ; it has been enlarged several times, and at last attained such
success that it was issued as a daily paper on October 16th, 1871. The Weekly
Courier is the laigest newspaper in Canada, four immense sheets, each with
ten columns of reading matter. In quality this pioneer paper of Brantford
excels as well as in quantity.
By 1840 Brantford had grown sufficiently thriving to warrant the establish-
ment of a second newspaper. It must be remembered that the absence of
those conditions which are the most important aids to progress in the Canada
of to-day, the railway and telegraph, assisted the local development of the
journalism which was one of the most impoi*tant factors in the progress of the
Canada of forty years ago. What newspapers there were had the field all to
themselves, and had not to cope with their big brothers, the great twin brethren
of the Toronto press. The local newspapers cam^ at a time when there were
few books obtainable, and then only at great expense. The newspaper was
the first means of popularizing literature, and all honour is due to those of our
citizens who first, at some risk in the venture, introduced into our rising cities
the honourable functions of the Fourth Estate.
The Herald was edited by a gentleman of marked literary ability, Mr.
Wellcsley Johnson, who now holds a hi^h position among the journalists of
Ottawa. The time was one of great political excitement ; the tliunder of 1837
was still in the air ; the new experiment of constitutional government was on
its trial ; the stormy turbulence of the election of 1844 was throwing its shadow
206 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
before it. The Herald was issued twice a week, and opposed with much
vigour the Conservative majority, which, aided by the good-will, somewhat
-emphatically expressed, of the Gtovemor-Generalf was about to triumph at the
next elections. Mr. Wellesley Johnson's facile and caustic pen rendered signal
.service to his party, and it soon became manifest that the Brantford Herald
was one of the very best newspapers west of Hamilton. Another editorial
writer in the Hei*ald of those days was Mr. Michael Foley, now the Hon.
Michael Foley^ who entered Parliament and became Postmaster-General in the
Government of the Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald As with manv other
statesmen, journalism formed his political education. Those were days of
strong passions and strong language, and the Herald did not hesitate at a hard
saying against the '' tyranny of Toryism," and more than once insinuated that
ihe representative of Her Majesty in Canada was a despot compared with
whom Nero might be considered a benevolent and sagacious ruler.
In 1853 the Herald passed by purchase to Mr. Peter R Long and Mr. Wm.
Pigot Mr. Grayson, now of the Brantford Telegram, who had then newly
arrived in the city, was engaged first as business manager, then as editor. Mr.
Grayson is a graduate of Toronto University, and a journalist of marked power
and originality, and the Herald continued to hold the high place it had so
deserv€Kily won. Mr. Grayson continued to edit the Herald for ten years, when
he left for Hamilton to take editorial charge of the Times of that city. Mr.
Foley wrote editorials from Ume to time, as also did Dr. Kelly, whose accom-
plished pen contributed much to its literary reputation. In 1855, the Herald
passed into the hands of George S. Wilkes, aided by Mr. B. Hazelhurst, under
whose regime the journal was promoted to the rank of a daily newspaper. It
was next edited by a Mr. Moon, who had been proof-reader in the Toronto
Leader, Under this gentleman the journal's reputation began to wane, and
many ill-natured remarks were made about the Herald being " moon struck" and
'" moonshine." Then it was purchased by two gentlemen residing in Paris
named Oliver and Humphries, and Brantford's interest in the paper was
lessened from local jealousy at the editorials being written in Paris, where Dr.
Oliver, brother of the proprietor, lived. Then Mr. John Decew bought the
paper, being aided in editorial work by Mr. Ewer. Lastly the Herald oecajxie
one of the many speculations of James Kerby, who built the Kerby House.
Mi. Kerby's capitsd was limited and inadequate to the many ventures in which
time after time he risked it ; the subscription list grew '* small by d^;rees, and
beautifully less ;*' and the Herald died, after an honourable career, with only
fourteen subscribers. This was in 1861.
Previous to this a second reform paper was started in Brantford by one of
the leading Beformers, the late Mr. Steele. At that juncture there was a ten-
dencv to a division between the more moderate Beformers and that Old Guard of
Gritism to whom political slang gave the sobriquet of Clear Gnts\, The Tribune
was the organ of the latter. In its columns Mr. J. D. Clements wrote many
trenchant articles. He was one of the staunchest of the Reform standard-
bearers, and is still living to see many of the changes for which he did battle,
carried out. Mr. Christie also contributed to the Tribune. But its career,
which promised to be a success, was cut short by the untimely death of its
proprietor. Mr. Steele had been a successful merchant^ the owner of a distilleiy
LOCAL HISTORY. 20T
and much other property in Brantford, of whose municipal body he was elected
a member.
The late Mr. Henry Kacey, Clerk in the Brantford Division Court, and his
Assistant Clerk, Mr. C. £. Stewart, issued a paper called the Conservative Ex^
po&UoT, in October, 1852. But soon after, Mr. Bacey retired from its direction,,
which had not been very successfully carried on, and Mr. Stewart, dropping the
prefix Conservative, made the Expositor a Reform organ. In 1857, that paper
had the advantage of being edited by Mr. Grayson, and of receiving editorial
contributions from the pen of Dr. Kelly; it soon began to prosper. Mr. Stewart
removed to Hamilton, having purchased the proprietorship of the Hamilton
Times. Mr. Samuel I. Jones, as his representative, edited the Eocpositor. To Mr.
Jones succeeded Mr. William C. Trimble, an able writer, but whose ill-health
soon compelled him to withdraw from his position as editor of the Eocpositor.
This was in February, 1867, when Mr. Robert Mathison succeeded him. On
Mr. Mathison being appointed Accountant and Bursar of the Loudon Lunatic
Asylum, a firm now known as W. C. Trimble & Co. purchased the Expositor.
Mr. William Watt, Jr., is now the editor, and under his management the paper
has acquired a higher reputation than ever, both for its presentation of news
and for its ably written editorials. It is a staunch reform organ, but it is
pleasant to see that in Brantford at lesist the virus of political quarrelling exists^
if at all, in a very mild form.
Brantford has boasted a comic paper, the Siuipping Turtle, a lively little
sheet, printed at the Expositor ofhce, and sold by Mr. Wanless, then a book-
seller in this city, at present in Detroit. Comic papers, as a rule, do not suc-
ceed, except when they have the additional attraction of being illustrated.
Grip has been a success, it is true, but nine out of ten purchasers buy it for the
cartoons; very few appreciate lor its own sake the often humorous aud
occasionally brilliant printed matter. The Snapping Turtle deserves the credit
of avoiding what to a local humorous or society paper is as the temptation to
a besetting sin, the tendency to become a mere chroiiique scandalevse, to indulge
in personfdities, and to retail the doubtful and often more than doubtful gossip.^
The Snapping Turtk'a brief existence ended in 1857.
About the same time the Baptist Messenger was published in Brantford by
Mr. White, who was a deacon of the Baptist Church in this city. It was
printed at the Herald office, and the editorial work was mainly from the pen
of Dr. Davidson, at that time pastor of the First Baptist Church, Brantford. It
has been questioned by Matthew Arnold and others whether religious journals
have a healthy influence either on religion or journalism ; but in looking over
the files of the Messenger one is struck by the marked absence of odium theolo*
giowm^ the tolerant and Christian tone adopted towards other churches, and the
scholarly style of the leading articles. But the headquarters of the Baptist
Church organ was soon removed to Toronto, and Brantford knew it no more.
Mr. William Trimble opened a printing office in Brantford in 1869, and having
soon afterwards fallen into ill health, which compelled him to give up aU
active business, he disposed of it in June, 1870, to Mr. E. G. Hart. Mr. Hart
began the publication of the Brant Union in June, 1872. The Union was a
strictly Conservative paper, well edited, and from the first enjoying a fair share
of popularity, although by this time a local newspaper had to contend not only
208 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
against local journals of the same political stripe, but against the mammoth
Toronto newspaper which every morning's train brought down hot from the press.
A year after this the UniAm was disposed 3f to Mr. VanNorman, who after
another year leased the property to Mr. Joshua T. Johnston, a journalist who
had been editing a newspaper in Petrolea. Mr. Jaffray was the next editor,
and in 1878 the Union also was made a daily newspaper.
In October, 1881, the Union was purchased by a chartered association called
*^ The Telegram Printing Company," its name being changed to the TeUgram,
It is a bright and lively sheet, edited with marked ability by Mr. Grayson.
The strangest chapter in the annals of the Brantford press is that of the
Daily News and itA editors. Mr. Joseph T. Kerby, brother of Mr. Eerby of
whom mention has already been made as the founder of the Kerby House
Hotel, set up a printing office in Brantford, and b^an to issue a daily paper
under the title of the DaUy News. Mr. Joseph Kerbv has since that time
given evidence of no ordinary talents for literature, and, had his means availed,
no doubt he would have raised the DaUy News to a fair position among
Brantford newspapers. But capital began to fail, and without capital, com-
positors and foremen cannot be induced to work. Mr. Kerby therefore sold
out to an American, Mr. Edward A. Percy. He at once inaugurated a new
state of things at the DaUy News office, which he refurnished with colouring
and decorations unknown to the humble sanctums of the ordinary Brantford
editor. All was sumptuous and superb, gilding, painting and furniture. Mr.
Percy was a man of decided talent, and except that his pen was somewhat too
caustic, had every requisite for making his paper a success. But he had not
patience to wait for the comparatively slow process of legitimate journalistic
gains. Beginning with first one and then another of the leading citizens of
Brantford, he sometimes said openly, and more often insinuated in a way which
there was no mistaking, that this and that horrible suspicion attached to Mr.
So-and-So's character ; that a certain married lady on Street entertained for
Mr. X. T. Z. an affection farmer than that required by the golden rule, &c.
Most of the citizens so attacked got frightened, thought discretion the better
part of valour, and paid the black-mail which it was hinted would secure
immunity from further mud-throwing. But there were men who were not so
weak-kneed. One of them met Percy, and administered such a drubbing to
the black-mailer that several of his teeth were knocked out, and, bruised and
bleeding, he was fain to slink away to a surgeon. Again and again the thrash-
ing process was repeated, but with no result That kind of beast which preys
on the good names of good men cannot be reformed even by kicking, though
on general principles of justice it is always good to kick them. Mr. Percy also
saw the inside of a prison cell, but still continued his infamous trade, while
many people, who should have had more sense of decency, encouraged him by
purchasing his vile paper, out of a morbid curiosity "just to see who the DaUy
News will be down on next ! " At length it became known that Percy ha4
married two wives, who, being contemporaries, only agreed with each other in
resolving to bring Mr. Percy under the penalties assigned by law to the too much
married. The game being evidently lost in Brantford, Mr. Percy precipitately
withdrew from the city, to the joy of the respectable public and the intense
^ef of his numerous creditors, to whom the paper, pfant, and office furniture^
E
LOCAL HISTOBT. 209
although it had been veiy costly when purchased a year before, only brought a
dividend of some twenty-five per cent Most of the plant of the Daily News
was bought by the Union,
On the whole, the career of the existing newspapers of Brantford has been
•« prosperous one, but for a loss by fire sustained by the Courier office.* On the
morning of February the 17th, 1860, a fire broke out either in McLean's dry
goods store or Wendon's drug store, and spreading with unchecked rapidity, it
uireatened the ExpofUar office, which was in ^reat danger, as the conflagra-
tion raged on both sides of ii The Expositor Jnovrever, esqapad with a pretty
severer scorching. The flames then spread in the direction of the UourieT
office, which occupied the other part of the brick building then used by Judge
•Jone& The entire machinery of the Cofwrier printing office was destroyed,
resses, tvpe, etc. ; some of the files of the paper, with the books, were saved,
»ut the older files, and therefore those of the greatest interest, perished.
The CWrier was the first daily newspaper published in Brantford, preceding
by several months Mr. Eerby's Daily Ifews, Its birth as a " Daily " took place
on the 16th of October, 1861. The first cylinder printing machine was that
used by the Expositor. Of all those engaged in Brantford journalism, two have
achieved public honours, one the Postmaster-Generalship of the Dominion, the
other the important position of School Inspector. Such has been the history
of the Fourth Estate in Brantford. The existing papers, the patriarchal Cowrier^
the austerely -Reform Expositor, and the genial and youthful Telegram, on the
whole get on amicably together; and if the Millennium has not yet brought the
day when the Conservative lion shall lie down with the Qrit lamb, still things
go on as weU as could be expected, and .nowhere more peaceably than among
the newspapers of the fair city of Brantford.
Medical Profession.
Bt William T. Hakbib, HB., H.D.
Owing to the superior standard of education required, the medical profession
in Canada has always held a high position as compared with its standing in
many other and older countries : and Brantford and the County of Brant have
been exceptionally favoured in having a staff of physicians of a high order of
education and ability.
The following are the names, alphabetically arranged, of the medical men
now residing in the city and county, with their degrees. The year named is
the one in which they respectively received the Provincial License : —
Brantford. — John J. Bown, M.D., St. Andrew's; M.RCS., Eng., 1851.
Henry J. Cole, M.D., Toronto Univ., M.C.P. & S., Ont., 1871. William C.
Corson, M.D., Victoria College, 1858. James W. Digby, M.D., McGill College,
1862. Egerton Griffin, M.D., Trinity College ; M.D., Univ., N. Y., 1853. Wm.
T. Harris, M.B. and M.D., Trinity College ; M.C.P. & S., Ont, 1874 Reginald
Henwood, Prov. License, 1846. Alfred J. Henwood, MD., McGill College;
M.C.P. & S.,Ont, 1882. M. J. Kelly, M.D., LL.B., Toronto Univ. David
Lowrey, MC P. & S., Ont., 1879. John J. Mason, M.RC.S., Eng., 1851. Wm.
Nichol, Certif. Homoeopathic Medical Board, 1*869. David L Philip, MD.,
McGill College, 1861. Robert Thompson, M.D., McGill College, 1852. Wm.?.
Winskel, M.D., Trinity College ; M.R.C.S., Eng., 1877.
210 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Paris.— Wm. Burt, KB., Toronto Univ. ; KC.P. & S., Ont, 1870. William
Clarke, Prov. License, 1860. Silas W. Cooke, Prov. License, 1843. Jas. W. IL
Dickson, L.RC.S., Edin.. 1854. Miles O'Reilly, M.D., Victoria CoU^e, 1868.
Arch. J. Sinclair, M.D., Trinity College, M.C.P. A S., Ont, 1875.
BuBFORD. — Charles M. Aikman, M.D., Victoria College, 1862. Wm. IL
Chrysler, M.D., Toronto Univ., 1865. Geo. W. Clendenon, M.C.P. & S.. Ont,
1882. Robert Harbottle, M.D., Toronto Univ., 1867.
Mount Pleasant. — Duncan Marquis, M.D., Victoria College, 1863.
TuscABOBA.— Robert Hill Dee, M.D., Univ , Buffalo, 1852.
St. Geobge.— Edwi R Kitchen, M.D., Toronto Univ., 1865. Edwd C.
Kitchen, M.C.P. & S., Ont, 1877. H. R Mainwaring, M.D., Univ., N.Y., 1842.
Franklin J. Patton, M.D., Victoria CoUege, 1868.
Scotland. — Wm. C. Freeman, M.C.P. & S., Ont, 1877. J. R. Malcolm, M.D.,
McGill College, 1861. Jas. W. Renwick, KC.P. & S., Ont, 1875. Edwin W.
Tegart, M.D., Victoria College, 1860.
The Brant County Medical Association embraces a large majority of the phy-
sicians in the city and county. The inaugural meeting was held at Brantford
on the 23rd day of August, 1870. A committee (composed of Drs. Henwood,
Griffin, Corson, and KeUy) was appointed at this meeting to draw a Constitution
and By-la «irs, and the report was adopted on the 6th of September following.
This society 9 besides being of great practical advantage, has done much to pro-
mote the agreeable harmony which has especially distinguished the medical
profession in this county. The meetings of the Association are held quarterly —
three times during the year at Brantford, and once at Paris usually.
The following is a list of the officers, from the inauguration of the Society
until the present : —
lV«rufofi/.— 1870-71, Dr. Lawrence ; 1872, Dr. Henwood ; 1873, Dr. Clark ;
1874, Dr. Griffin ; 1875, Dr. Mainwaring ; 1876, Dr. Digby ; 1877, Dr. Philip;
1878, Dr. Burt ; 1879, Dr. Marquis ; 1880, Dr. Dickson ; 1881, Dr. Kitchen ;
1882, Dr. aark.
rice'Fre8idetU.—lS70, Dr. Hipkins; 1871. Dr. Dee ; 1872, Dr. Clark ; 1873,
Dr. Griffin ; 1874, Mainwaring ; 1875, Dr. Digby ; 1876, Dr. Philip ; 1877, Dr.
Burt ; 1878, Dr. Marquis ; 1879, Dr. Dickson ; 1880, Dr. Kitchen ; 1881, Dr.
Sinclair ; 1882, Dr. Harria
Secretary and Treasurer.— 1870, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Harbottle ; 1871-2, Dr. Griffin,.
Dr. PhiUp; 1873-4, Dr. Hipkins, Dr. Philip; 1875, Dr. Philip; 1876 to 1882,
Dr. Harris ; 1882, Dr. WinskeL
Dr. Thomas was the first medical man in BrantfonL He remained but a
short time, and buUt a small log house near where the Institute for the Blind
now stands.
Dr. Gilpin settled here about the year 1832 or 1833, and was in active prac-
tice for years. He built a house on the lot now occupied by Dr. J. W. Digby.
- Dr. Alfred Digby succeeded him about the year 1835, who from this time
until his death, in 1866, was one of the most prominent physicians and citizens
of Brant County.
Dr. Martyr came soon after Dr. Digby, and was a leading practitioner for
many years. He died about the year 1860. One of his daughters is the wife
of Walter Rubidge, fisq.. Local Kegistrar of the High Court of Justice, and
another the widow of the late Chief -Justice Wood.
LOCAL HISTORY. 211
Dr. Eeist practised in Brantford for some years, and died of cholera, con*
tracied in the practice of his profession, about the year 1850.
Dr. Theodore Bown, who di^ in 1873, came to this city about the year 1855,.
and was for the -intervening period a very active member of the profession.
The names of the other members of the profession deceased, who were prac-
titioners in the coimty are : — Charles Duncombe, Burford ; Elam Stimson,
Si Geoi^ ; Hipkins, 0*Carr, Brantford ; Lawrence, McCosh, Christie, Paris ;.
Keith, Brantford ; Witcher, Middleport ; Ross, Burford ; Skinner, Brantford.
Dr. R H. Dee, the present physician to the Indians, residing in Tuscarora
TowDship, has occupied this position for upwards of 30 years, and his experi-
ence with some of the hardships of the first medical men in the county will
perhaps be that of all old physicians here, the majority of whom are deceased.
The roads in Onondaga aqd Tuscarora Townships were, at the time of the
Doctor's settlement here, in many places just cut out, and often while riding
on horseback (the customary mode of travel by the physician in those days),,
it was necessary to dismount, walk a log over a mud -hole, and let the horse
wade through the mire. There was oo ferry, except at Tuscarora Church,
between Brantford and Caledonia, and consequently in crossing the river it
often necessitated the physician's paddling over in a canoe, the horse swim-
ming alongside the* boat. The Indians, before the whites settled here, and
many even to this day, believe the sick are bewitched or possessed of some
evil spirit, and call the medicine-men, who dance around the sick person, throw
hot ashes about and leap on him. These medicine-men are dressed in false
faces and all sorts of hideous costumes to frighten the sickness away. Some
Indian women as well as men are reputed to be good doctors, and are called
to see the sick, when they often prescribe decoctions of bitter herbs and barks
by the quart Others have a powder and ask for a cup of cold water, then
dust a small portion of this powder into the water, pTetending to tell by the
sinking or floating thereof whether the sick person will live or die. At other
times the Indian doctor will pretend that he draws feathers, hairs, etc., out of
the patient's flesh, and attribute the disease to this cause. Often the sick are
put on a very sparse diet, and not allowed to sec any person except the doctor
or nurse for a week or nine days ; then he must be fed on broth made from a
pure white hen ; after this he can be seen.
Since the Six Nation Indians have employed educated physicians, they have
taken much less medicine from the native doctor, having learnt that a small
powder from the qualified medical-man is much more eflicacious than the
quarts of the Indian medicine. These people do not object to vaccination,
hence setting a noble example to many of their white neighbours. In the
year 1882 about 900 were successfully operated upon by their two medical
attendants, Drs. Dee and McCargow. The Indians are seldom anything but
kind and respectful to the white doctor, even if they decline his advice and
medicine. Some Indian men are believed to have a/ medicine that will cause
bones which have been broken to grow together in a wonderfully short space
of time. Malarial fever is the prevailing disease among them. Dr. Dee has
walked many miles, often 20 a day, owing to the bad state of the road<« and
not being able to use a horse. Sketches of the most prominent medical men
will be found in the Biographical Chapter.
•212 bistort of brant county.
Bench and Bar.
In a nation of freemen, where the Government is supposed to be an expression
of the people's will, the influence of such a vast body of men as the legal pro-
fession now contains, whose study leads to a correct understanding of the
nature, principles and machinery of the civil compact, cannot be overrated.
Hie Canadian lawyer, not content with the routine of court and professional
duties, directs his efforts to a wider field ; following the path to which his
position, requirements and tastes strongly tend, he eagerly enters the political
arena, seeking assiduously the honours of a parliamentary career, with what
success our history plainly tescifie&
From the organization of the Provincial Government, four-fifths of the high-
est ofiSices have been filled by lawyers. The Bar stands high in public estimation^
and the time has never been when political office or influence was more liber-
ally accorded to its members than at the present day. In the most important
trusts they are to be found. The Dominion legislative halls and the executive
departments are filled with men whose claims to distinction, to a great extent,
originated in legal excellence and acquirements. The several Provincial
Governments are in the same hands, while all the acknowledged party leaders,
and nearly all who are thought of as candidates for high political positions,
have been educated in the same great schooL The lawyer who prides himself
on his profession cannot avoid a feeling of complacency as he surveys its present
condition in the Dominion of Canada, always prominent and always honoured ]
and, as we believe, more at the present time than ever before it occupies a
position and wields an influence such as no other profession or calling can for
a moment aspire to.
It is the nature of the profession of the law« when pursued by congenial
minds and in accoixlance with its inherent spirit, to elevate and liberalize the
social principle. Those who attain eminence in that profession necessarily
take deep and wide visions of human conduct, obtained by living, practical
observation of the motives of men, the objects they pursue, and the uses of
those objects. Hence it is that men of that profession are ever found in the
front rank of those who devote themselves to the interests of the age>
evidenced by noble exertions and personal sacrifices in support of the great
principles upon which the rights of liberty and property depend.
Great as is the fame of many who in ages past have won themselves renown
by their attainments, the power of their reason, and their eloquence as advo-
cates, we believe their equals are now living. We are not of those who are
ever deifying the past, and unable to recognize any merit or abilitv in the
{^resent age. Though none are more wilKng to pay tribute to the well-earned
ame of those who have been ijie glory of the Bar m periods that are gone, yet
while we give the fathers all just praise, we would not depreciate their sons;
and because we honour and respect the great lawyers of the past, we see no
reason to forget those who are present with us.
The history of the Bench of Brant County must necessarily be brief, as Judge
Stephen James Jones, the present incumbent of the office, is the only officer of
the kind the county has had since its organization in 1852. Judge Jones was
educated in Hamilton, where he read Taw under the preceptorship of Miles
LOCAL HISl'ORr. S13
O'Beilly and S. B. Freeman, Q.C. In February, 1846, he was called to the
Bar, and afterwards practised his profession with Mr. Freeman until 1853^
when he received the appointment of County Judge. In August, 1875, he
reoeiyed the additional appointment of Master in Chancery, and is now per-
forming the functions of both offices. His ability as a judge, and the satisfac-
tion given to litigants by his decisions are best evinced by his long term of
official servica An extensive sketch of him may be found in the Biographical
Chupter of this work.
Tne Bar of the County of Brant now consists of the following named gentle-
men, many of whom have devoted long years of their lives to the study and
practice ol their profession in the courto of this county, while others are com-
paratively young in the calling they have chosen : Hon. A. S. Hiurdy, Alfred J.
Wilkes and Charles S. Jones, of the firm of Hardy, Wilkes & Jones, Brentford ;
Hugh McKay Wilson, Robert C. Smythe and Qeorge H Muirhead, as Wilson,
Smythe & Muirhead, Brantf'ord ; Bex^jamin F. Fitch and James E. Lee, as Fitch
& Lee, Brantford ; George R VanNorman, Q.C., and Peter Purves, as Van-
Norman & Purves, Brentford; Valentine McEenzie, Brantford; William H.
C. Kerr, Brantford ; Daniel Brook, Brantford ; John W. Bowlbey, LL.B.,
Brantford ; Thomas S. Wade, Brantford ; Thomas Woodyatt, Brantf ora ; Louis
F. Heyd, Brantford ; James Hardy, Brantford ; and Viscoa, Brantford ;
John McMillan, Paris ; and Charles M. Foley, Paria
At the time of the oiganization of the county, thirty years ago, we find the
names of Stephen J. Jones, John Cameron, Daniel McKerlie, W. Rubidge,
Daniel Brooke, M. H. Toby, Archibald Gilkison, William K Alma, John H.
Moore, G^ige S. Wilkes, James Wilkes, John Smith, Thomas B. McMahon,
<7. R. VanNorman, Henry A Hardy, E. B. Wood, Peter B. Long, Geo. W.
Wattock and F. T. Wilkes, associated together in the formation of a society to
be called ''The Brant County Law Library Association." At a meeting
held on 13th November, 1853, they adopted the declaration following, to wit :
'^ Be it remembered that on the 13th day of November, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, we the underiigned stockholders
met at the office of Daniel McKerlie, in the Town of Brantford, in the County
oi Brant and Province of Canada, %quire ; and resolved to form ourselves
into an association to be called and known by the name of 'The Brant
County Law Library Association,' according to the provisions of a certain Act
of the Parliament of this Province, entitled, ' An Act to provide for the incor-
poration and better management of Library Associations and Mechanics'
Institutes,' for the purpose of forming a Law library at the Town of Brant-
ford, within the saia county ; and we do hereby declare that the capital stock
of the said association shall be £500, to be divided into shares of two pounds
and ten shillings of lawful money each ; and we the undersigned stockholders
do hereby agree to take and accept the number of shares set by us opposite to
our resp^^ve names or signatures ; and we do hereby agree to pay the calls
thereon according to the provisions and intentions of the said in part recited
Act, and of the rules, regulations and by-laws of the said association to be
made and passed in that behalf ; and we do hereby nominate and appoint
Stephen James Jones, John Cameron, Frederick T. Wilkes, Henry A. Hardy
and Peter B. Long, all of the said Town of Brantford, Esquires, to be the first
214 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
trustees of the said association ; and we do hereby further declare that the
mode in which the successors of the said trustees and their successors in con-
tinued succession shall be appointed, and new members of the said association
shall be admitted, shall be provided for and be in accordance with the by-law
or by-laws hereafter to be passed, and by virtue of the provisions in the said
in part recited Act mentioned and set forth/' Here follows a list of the
members as above, with the amount of stock taken by each.
On December 10th, 1853, by-laws were adopted in which the number and
rank of officers were fixed, and the mode of succession in office provided for.
The first officers (at this meeting elected) were S. J. Jones, Chairman, and P.
B. Long, Secretary. The present officers of the association are : Judge S. J.
Jones, President ; H. McK. Wilson, Vice-President ; J. E. Lees, Treasurer ; C,
S. Jones, Secretary ; and G. H. Muirhead, librarian.
This library, which is the property of the association, is kept, by permission
of the County Council, in a room in the County Buildings. It was first es-
tablished soon after the association was formed by donations from the legal
profession in the county, and since that date has been supported by an annual
assessment on each member practising in the County of Brant The Law
Society of Upper Canada also makes an annual grant to this Ubraiy in propor-
tion to the amount that may be subscribed by members. The library receiver
all current reports, both Canadian and English, and also takes all the best law
digests published. There are at present some eight hundred volumes on the
shelves.
Among the early members of the Bar mention might be made of Alexander
Stewart and Esquire Cameron, of Cameron & Bethune, one of the first law
firms in tlie county. It is said that Alexander Stewart was the fin^ resident
attorney of the county, but he was so soon followed by Esquires Cameron,
Bethune and McDonald, that it is well enough to say that the four gentlemen
named constituted the first attorneys of the county.
The members of the Bar who began their professional career at the Bar of
the County of Brant, and afterwards attained high positions in the profession,
or became the incumbents of important political offices, were Messrs. Wood,.
Wilkes, Hardy, McEerlie and Rubidge^ Hon. Edmund B. Wood, who practised
law in Brantford many years, became a leading partizan leader, and occupied
successively the prominent offices of Provincial Treasurer, member of the
House of Commons for West Durham County, and Chief-Justice of Manitoba,.
the latter position having received his attention until the time of his death, as
noted elsewhere.
A. S. Hardy, an attorney of Branttbrd for some years, gave up his professional
duties to accept the position of Provincial Treasurer, of which he is still the
incumbent.
Frederick T. Wilkes, an early lawyer of the county, practised at the Bar for
a period of many years, but afterwards accepted the Judgeship of the County
of Grey, in which position he died. He was bom in England, and came to this
country in 1820.
David McKerlie, one of the legal fraternity of the county, occupied a seat in
the old Parliament of Canada, and became a man of considerable political
strength, and a favourite of the people.
LOCAL HISTORY.
215
W. Bttbidge, the present local Registrar of the High Court, Clerk of the County
Court, and Kegistrar of the Surrogate Court, was a member of the county Bar,
and an active practitioner for upwards of seven years. He was for a time
associated in partnership with Esquire Cameron, idter the death of Esquire
Bethime, the junior partner of the original firm.
Other Brant County attorneys died while in active practice in the courts of
the county, while still others, after practising here for a time, removed to other
parts of ti^ie Dominion or to the States, and many of them are now leaders of
their profession in the places of their adoption.
216 HISTORY OF BBANT COTOTV.
CHAPTER VIL
Agricultural Societies. — Bow Park Farm. — First Provin-
cial Exhibition held in Brantford, iSsy.
Agricultural Societies.
•
The early books and records of these societies having long since disappeared,
and not having access to the books of the more recently organized societies, we
are enabled to treat this subject only in a general and very unsatisfactory way.
This is to be regretted, as the societies exert a powerful influence in the county,,
and add very materially to the growth and development of the agricultural
interests.
The first agricultural society in the county was organized in 1835, under
very unfavourable circumstances, and with very little means but a considerable
membership. All the agriculturists of the county took a deep and active
interest in this society, and all came with their families- to attend the annual
meetings, which partook the nature more of a social than of a fair. For many
years the society owned no ground, and held their meetings in a difierent place
each year. Land was then very plenty, and large tracts of it were yet unoc-
cupied. On these vacant pieces of ground the society would erect their shades,
under which the grain and fruit were exhibited. These shades consisted merely
of poles driven into the ground, on which a temporary roof was supported.
Money at that time being a very scarce article, and extremely hard to get,
the premiums on horses and products were so small as to hardly merit the
name of premiums ; indeed they were not sought for on account of the profit
realized in them, but merely to enable the recipient to say that he had ob-
tained the premium at the fair on his horse, pig or what not. This society
continued to increase in numbers and interest, and in 1860 a lot of thirteen
and a half acres of ground was purchased off of what was called the " Meyer's
Tract,'* for which $80 per acre was paid About ten years later five acres more
were added to the tract at $100 per acre ; the ground being that on which the
South Brant Society now hold their fairs.
On the 4th March, 1868, an Act was passed, entitled "An Act for the Encour-
agement of Agriculture, Horticulture, Arts and Manufactures," which provided
for the organization and incorporation of township societies and societies in
each electoral district The Act also provided for the payment of an annual
sum by the Government to each district society, which in its turn had to divide
a portion of the sum thus received among the various township societies. This
sum was to be proportionate to the work done by the society, but in no case
could exceed $700.
Under this Act four societies exist at the present time in Brant County,
namely : The North Brant District Society, The South Brant District Society,
LOCAX HISTORY. 217
The Buifoid Township Society, and The Onondaga Township Society, the two
first named now consisting of about live hundred members. Each of these
local societies will be mentioned in their proper places in this work.
Bow Pabk Farm.
Bow Park Farm is situated four miles from the City of Brantford ; it con-
tains 900 acres, all under a high stat« of cultivation, with the exception of a
small belt of ornamental timber. It lies on the west bank of the Grand River,,
which takes its rise in the County of Bruce, and flows into Lake Erie a short
way above the Niagara Biver.
At this spot the Grand Biver makes a series of most curious deflections, by
which sixteen hundred acres are all but cut off from the mainland and sur-
rounded by the river, forming it nearly into an island. The shape of this
peninsula is that of an Ox Bow ; and from this it takes its title, Ox Bow Bend.
Bow Park Farm embraces nine hundred acres, forming the head of this bow,
and a more beautiful spot would be difficult to find. For more than seven
miles the Ouse, or Grand Biver, runs round the estate, twisting about in most
eccentric fashion, and presenting at every turn jutting points, grassy knolls,,
and wooded banks highly picturesque.
The one great purpose of the farm is the rearing of thorough-bred farm stock
— short-horn cattla Everything in the working of the place tends to this end.
The great aim, never lost sight of, is to find in what manner live stock can be
best and most profitably carried to the highest perfection, and by what mode
of cultivation the largest amount of succulent and healthful food found best
adapted for the stock can be judiciously and economically taken from the
land.
As you enter the property by the macadamized road from Brantford, you
iind yourself driving along a gravel road on the top of a beautiful wooded bank,
with the Grand River flowing peacefully some sixty feet below you. For over
two miles this high bank continues, but there it begins gradually to descend,
until at last, at the other side of the estate, it is but a few feet above the level
of the river. The width of the property, at its narrowest point, is about half a
mSe across from bank to bank, and at its widest about a mile and a half. At
the latter point an excellent road, known as the " Three Mile Circle," has been
formed, for carrying on the operations of the farm, and from it access can be
had to all the fields. The road is fenced in on both sides with a substantial
fence of cedar posts and sawed pine boards, and shaded along a large portion of
it by belts of ornamental and useful trees. Outside this circle, and all round
it, is a range of large fields, having the river for their other boundary ; and
inside the circle are several very large fields of great fertility, separated from each
other by belts of bush-land, rejoicing in all their primitive luxuriance of oak,
elm and ash — walnut, hickory, and cherry — hazel, maple, and sumac — ^all
bedecked with beautiful wild vines, clematis and Virginia creeper, and strewed
with ferns, roses, and all manner of wild flowers indigenous to the soil.
Of the 900 acres constituting the estate, 780 are under the plough, and the
balance is devoted to roads, building sites, orchard ground, belts of wood for
ornament and shelter, with a number of well shaded runs of broken land in all
218 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
its original wildness, where the cattle take their daily recreatioiL The whole
of the laud is loam of a most fertile character on a clay subsoil. The fields
along the bank on the west side of the estate are light loam, but towards the
east they become gradually heavier, until the range of rich deep alluvial flats
on the east bank is reached. Of course, all the fields along the river bank are
amply supplied with water from the river ; but in addition springs of clear cold
water abound all over the estate. The fields are large — ^from 40 to 110 acres
each — they are well fenced, thoroughly worked, and in high condition. Large
beds of limestone gravel are found on the place, and render the maintenance of
good roads upon it an easy matter. The Grand River is navigable from its
mouth to Brantford, and manures, coal, and- other heavy commodities can be
delivered from the boats on the farm bank.
The first point towards the successful establishment of a great stock fiaurm is
to have land of the right soil, well watered and well shaded ; but the second
and no less important point is to have farm buildings suited for the special
ends to which they are to be applied. Both of these essentials are amply found
at Bow Park The farm builcUngs, for extent, completeness, and convenience,
are probably unsurpassed anywhere. As he approaches the farmstead, the visitor
finds, standing at the top of the road leading to the buildings, the snug cottage
of the farm manager ; and the commanding view obtained from this elevated
point, of a large portion of the estate, and also of the beautiful and fertile plain
stretching out for miles to the westward, will not fail to arrest his attention.
Passing through the gate and down the road the buildings are soon reached.
There is nothing of the shed about them. They are all substantial brick build-
ings (mostly two story), erected on stone or concrete foundations, with metal
eave-troughs, perfect dirainage and ventilation. The buildings and the small
yards attached to them cover some six or seven acres ; and though gradually
extended to its present dimensions as necessity from year to year arose, the
whole establishment has been got up on a compact and systematic plan. The
first building reached on the left hand side of the road is the implement and
cart-house, with a com loft above. It is 200 feet long by 24 wide ; and is filled
with all sorts of implements and machinery for carrying on effectively and
economically the daily work of the farm. Nearly all the instruments are in
duplicate, so that the work shall not stand still while a break is being repaired.
The corn-loft above extends the whole length of the building, and is of a con-
venient height from the ground to enable the grain to be received from the
waggons or loaded into them by the loft doors. Passing along the front of the
implement-house, and turning round its north-east corner, you come to the
stable, which stands at right angles to the implement-house, so as to form
together two sides of a square, and is 180 feet long by 24 feet wide. There are
in it twenty-four stalls — ^all occupied — and a hay-loft above, the full size of the
building. The horses used are useful animals, kept in good condition, but, with
the exception of a few Clyde mares, not of special breeding. The intention is
that a step in advance shall be soon taken in regard to this department of the
farm, by the introduction of a number of brood mares of high clasa Coming
back from the stables to the main road, and going east in a direct line with
the implement-house, stands the great bam. It is 220 feet long by 48 feet
wide, and of great height The lower story is built of stone, with concrete floor.
"^/■-^ /■
-^
^^UC LIBRARY
TIT ,>t*^^' '-•^OX
< >.
LOCAL HISTORY. 221
«nd is entirely devoted to the storing of mangolds, carrots and swedes, for the
winter supply of stock. It contains over 20,000 bushels of roots, and the ven-
tilation is effectually secured by box-vents carried up to the top of the building,
and opened or shut at pleasure. This bam conveiyiently stands on a gentle
descent; so that while the main cellar door at the east gable-end of the build-
ing is on a level with the ground, the main entrance at the west gable-end to
the threshing floor is also on a level with the higher ground at that end. This
upper part of the building is annually tilled to the ceiling with sheaves of
unthieshed grain ; but there are also seven large bams in different parts of the
farm, where large quantities are stored ; and what cannot be got inside is stacked
in the barn-yard. Attached to the centre of the great bam on its north side is
a building 60 feet long by 30 feet wide, which contains a twenty-horse power
engine and boiler, with efficient machinery for cutting into chaff all the hay and
straw used on the farm, crushing the com and oil-cake, pulping the roots, cut-
ting the fire wood, pumping water ihto the cistern, and steaming the food for
the cattle during the winter. Continuing further down the road on the same
line, we come successively to three short-horn houses, each of them 270 feet
long, and with enclosed yards on each side of them into which the cattle run.
The first one is the winter abode of the cows whose calves have been weaned.
It is 32 feet wide, with an eight-feet waggon-passage up the centre from end
to end, and a range of boxes 12 feet by 10 feet on each side. Each box has an
outside door opening into the yard ; each animal has a box to itself, and none
of them are tied up. The second of the three buildings is the only remaining
stall-house on the place, and it is held to be a model of its kind. It is 34 feet
wide, with an eight-feet waggon passage in the centre, a row on each side of 62
stalls, and a footway behind each row njixt the outside walls. The cattle are
ranged with their heads to the centre passftge^ and each stall has a convenient
feeding trough and hay-rack which are rapidly supplied with food and water
from a cart driven along the passage. But experience has shown that boxes
are vastly superior to stalls for the accommodation of a grand race of animals.
The boxes leave them free to move about at will ; there is no strain on the
sinews or muscles ; the temper is less ruffled ; the health is more vigorous ; acci-
dents are of rarer occurrence ; and by the box system only can be assured that
iree and elegant gait and carriage that stamp the true short-horn wherever
found. The last of the three buildings is the bull-house, and it is fitted up with
laige comfortable boxes throughout for animals of different sizes. There is an
outside door to each box ; and an open yard for each is now being constructed,
to which the animals can resort at pleasure.
Crossing the road we come to the pig-house, where may be seen several scores
of Berkshires that would be hard to beat anywhere, luxuriating in their com-
fortable boxes. This house is 170 feet long by 24 feet wide, with an eight-
feet passage up the centre, and boxes ranged along both sides for 100 hogs.
There are runs on each side of the building for the pigs to enjoy themselves,
and convenient sliding doors to let them out and in. Next comes the calving-
house, a snug erection 80 feet long by 20 wide, with a long tier of large, com-
modious boxes, and a hay-loft above. At one end of this building is fitted up
a comfortable apartment for an experienced herdsman, who is always on hand^
and ready at night to start up at a moment's notice. The building that comes
14
222 HI8T0BT OF BRAKT COUNTY.
next is the moBt attractive part of the establishment to visitors. It is 270 feet
l<Hig by 34 feet wide, with an eight-feet passage up the centre, and 12 x 12 feet
boxes ranged on each side. Here the cows and their calves are brought from
the calving-house, and there they remain for a period of from six to nine
months, according to circumstance& Each cow and her calf have a box to
themselves ; the cow is amply supplied with nutritious food, and the calf gets
the whole of its dam's milk. Eveiy one knows that if you would raise good
stock of any kind you must feed the young ones liberally with the right kind
of food. With homed cattle, n^lect during the first year can never be made
up ; and this fact is kept carefdUy in remembrance at Bow Park. There are
fifty-two boxes in the house ; usually each of them is inhabited by a cow and
her calf ; and it is a most interesting sight to pass along the boxes and mark the
varied appearance and bearing of the different animals. Some of the cows are
dignified and reserved, as becomes an aristocratic race ; while others are bank
and courteous, like the innate gentlewoman of high or low degree. Occasionally,
too, there happens to get into every herd a mean-looking subject that can't look
you in the face, and tiiat you strongly suspect had been convicted (of course
before she came into your possession) of stealing her neighbour's newspaper, or
some equally heinous offence. But, of course, these improper characters are
packed off at the earliest opportunity, to be sold to the hignest bidder without a
shadow of leserva
But pass we on to the long range of substantial sheds that run up the road
for fifty feet until they reach the cross-road (on which stands the stable), and
then turn south at right angles for 250 feet. These are the open houses that
were erected when £)w Park first passed into the hands of Mr. Brown, and
which were used to test practically the comparative merits of open air versus
in-door cattle-raising, and had a final verdict unanimously recorded against
them. They are now, however, found useful adjuncts to a higher and better
system. Let us now cross the road and enter that large door at the south end
of the long building next us. It is the calf -house, 200 feet long by 24 feet
wide, with cart-road up the centre ; boxes (smaller than those we have left)
ranging along both sides, and a spacious hay-loft above. Into this house are
brought the heifer calves when first weaned ; and with a daily run in tiie pad-
dock attached, and good wholesome food, they don't suffer much from the
change to it We now pass from the calf -house through the large door at the
opposite end from where we entered, and find before us the gable-end of what
is the yearling short-horn heifer-house in summer. It is a substantial two-
story building like the others, 250 long by 20 feet wide — 50 feet of it being on
the west side of the cross-road, in line with the calf -house and stables, and the
•remaining 200 turning to the west at right angles, and forming the parallel
building on the south side of the main road to the implement-house on the
north side, with which we started There is a large yard attached to this, with
a never-failing well of fine spring water in the centre. The heifers are all sent
to l^e pasture runs for some hours every day ; but they are brought home ia
the afternoon, and well fed when they come in and before going out in the
morning. They are kept in good growing condition, and at twenty-two months-
are <firawn off for service, and placed with the other young stock '^needing
jtttention."
LOCAL HISTORY. 223
The good health maiDtained in the herd is a remarkable feature of it.
Kinderpest, pleuro-pneumonia and foot and mouth disease, so fatal in Europe,
are unknown in Canada. No serious epidemic has ever assailed the cattle of
Ontaria The diy bracing air of Canada seems well adapted to the raising of
a vigorous race of short-horns ; the cheapness of building timber enables com-
fortable stables to be provided at much less cost than in other countries ; and
the comparatively low cost at which fodder can be raised or purchased, gives
the Canadian breeder great advantage over his compfetitors in other countries.
The utmost care and attention are aevoted to the daily management of the
animals. The feeding, watering, currying and exercising are systematically
arranged and seen to at the right time. Every animal is inspected every day;
no defective animal is reared ; only those are brought up that are of sound
constitution, in vigorous health, and well formed. The miJe animals especially
are'severely culled. Not only must the constitution, form and vitality of the
joana bulls be thoroughly up to the mark, but the style of the animal and
his c^our must be satisfactory to save him from the butcher. The reward of
the care bestowed on the animals, is a steady improvement in the character and
appearance of the herd every new year, in comparison with the last
From the opening of spring until the hay and grain are taken from the fields,
not a hoof goes on the meadows or arable fields. The animals are kept in the
sheltered paddocks, and^reen crops are specially grown for them, and carried
and fed to them there. The amount of food that can thus be obtained is enor-
mous ; it IS onlv limited by the quantity of manure applied, and the prompti-
tude with which the field work is carried on. Let us try to describe as nearly
as possible the summer system at Bow Park. When the spring opens, a large
amount of the work too often left to be done then has already oeen accom-
plidied the previous fall. For example, over four hundred acres were ploughed
bst fall, and over two hundred of it sown with rye. This crop is invaluable
on a lai^e stock farm. Its certainty, its early maturity, the large amount of
nutritious green food it provides, the great bulk of straw obtained from it wheu
ripe, and the convenience of sowing it in the fall when the pressuro of field work
is over, give it a place which no other grain can supply. The green rye is ready
for cutting almost as a rogular thing in the first week in May ; and by varying
the times of sowing, the cuttings can be made to extend over five weeks, or
until the second week in June. Towards the end of the time it begins to set
hard, and it is well to pass it through the chaff-cutter. The volume of this
succulent food obtained from an aero varies from 15 to 25 tons, according to
the season and condition of the soil ; and from 23 to 28 acres of it have always
been sufiicient to carry the whole herd at Bow Park over the period imlicatecL
The second soiling crop of the season is oats, peas and tares mixed. The land
for it is manured and ploughed the previous fall, and with the first movement
of spring, the cultivators, harrows, seed-drills, rollers and plaster-sowern, are set
to work with all vigour, and from 40 to 50 acms soon completed. The first
sowings of this crop are fullj ready to cut when the green rye becomes too
hard to be palatable, and the acreage named is usually more than sufficient to
supply the entire herd luxuriously until the end of July. In a moist season,
the volume of succulent food obtained from this crop is enormous, and the
cattle delight in it The third soiling crop of the season is Indian corn, and
^24 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
whether for use as green fodder in August and September, or as dry fodder from
October to May, there is nothing equal to it. At Bow Park, great reliance is
placed upon it, and large quantities of it are annually grown. Two kinds of
it are used — ^the eight-rowed yellow Canadian com when the g^^ is to be
matured, and the large western com when fodder only is desired. The planting
'Commences with the western com about the 20th of May, and over 100 acres of
it are usually sown to be cut late in the season, and kept for winter supply.
All sorts of ways of planting it have been tried, but that now adopted at Bow
Park as the best is to manure the land very heavily, to drill in the seed in
rows 25 to 27 inches apart, with a Bachelder's Corn-sower, to sow broadcast
over the land with a Seymour's Plaster Machine from 200 to 300 lbs. of gypsum
per acre, when the plant is fairly up, and to keep the horse-hoes steadily
going until the growing com debars it
To cut com for winter suply, it is important to do it at the time when the
Baccharine matter is at its highest point. An acre of it taken from a large
field was carefully weighed at Bow Park, and found to contain 36 tons of green
fodder. The practice after cutting is to tie it up in bundles, gather these into
half ton stooks, ^ow the stooks to stand in the field during winter, and draw
them in as required It is estimated that the com so treated shrinks to one-
fourth its green weight, but its weight and value are veir great at that. As
the winter advances, the dried com is cut up into chaff, mixed with Indian
com meal and pea straw, thrown into large vats, and thoroughly steamed by
pipes led into them from the boiler. The cattle eat this mixture with great
reush to the last when properly steamed, and three tons per day of it are con-
sumed during the winter. Early in June the sowing of the Canadian com
commences, and from 60 to 70 acres of it are usually planted. In the County
of Brant it is usually a successful crop, and when it is so, the returns from it
of grain and fodder are highly satisfactory. Even when early frosts prevent
its ripening, the amount of excellent fodder obtained gives a profitable return.
Immediately after the planting of the Canadian corn, come catch-crops of
western com for consumption in August and September. ITie first of these
is taken from the land on which stood the green rye first cut The moment the
rye is off the ground, a good dressing of barnyard manure is quickly applied,
the ploughs and planters are set to work, and the same practice followed as
already described. In the same manner, catch-crops of western com are taken
from the land on which the second soiling supply of peas, oats and tares was
grown. About 70 acres are thus found amply sufficient to carry the whole herd
from the first week in May to the last in September, when the after-math of the
meadows and the range of the harvested fields furnish abundant supplies until
the time arrives for going into close winter quarters. And when that time does
arrive, the whole of the early planted western com, and of the Canadian com, and
the hay, and the Hungarian crass, and the roots, and the oat, pea, barley, and rye
straw, and the grain from aU these crops, are to the fore and more than suffi-
cient for winter necessities. Oilcake, bran, Indian corn and oats for fodder,
and straw for bedding, are the only supplies for the animals that have to be
purchased. The whole amount annually thus expended is not a large sum; and
it is in great part balanced by sales of rye and barley grown upon the farm.
The Association owning the farm at present gets the name of " The Canada
LOCAL HISTORY. 225
West Farm Stock Association/' the principal shareholders being Thomas
Nelson, of Eldinbargh, Scotland, and his sister, widow of the late Senator
Brown, of Toronto. The herd now comprises 150 thorough-bred females and
50 males, and is probably the largest and most valuable short-hbm herd in the
world It is the intention of the proprietors to continue to enlarge and
improve it as opportunity occurs.
First Provincial Exhibition held in Brantford, 1857.
The Twelfth Annual Provincial Elxhibition of the Agricultural Association
was held at Brantford on September 29th and 30th, October 1st and 2nd, 1857.
The ground chosen was an elevated piece of dry, sandy land, immediately
adjoining the Brantford station of the Buffalo and Brantford Railway^
overlooking the town, and commanding an extensive and pleasant view
of the surrounding country. Temporary buildings, pens and fences were
erected by the local committee. Tne ground, about twenty acres in extent^
was planted with trees. Nearly opposite the entry gate, in the shape of a
Gieek cross, stood a large building, one hundred and fifty feet long by forty
feet broad, with an octagon tower rising in the centre. This was the Floral
HaU, devoted to floriculture, horticulture, the educational department, ladies*
work and the fine arts. Behind it, hidden from view on entering, was another
building of the same shape, for the agricultural, dairv and other products.
Between the fence and these buildings the space on the nght hand was devoted
to the exhibition of the horses. To the left on entering were placed the
ploughs and other implements and machines, and the refreshment booths.
All around the inside of the fence were pens for cattle, sheep and pigs.
For the convenience of people having animals or heavy articles for exhibi-
tion, the Railway Company made a temporary switch to the lower comer of
the grounds. The contributions from municipalities and societies to defray
the local expenses were as follows : — The Town of Brantford, £1,000 ; the
County of Brant, £500 ; the County of Waterloo, £50 ; the County of Oxford,
£100 ; the County of Wentworth, £50 ; the County of Norfolk, £50 ; the
County of Norfolk Agricultural Society, £50 ; and the whole of the funds of
the County of Brant Agricultural Society. The amount of prizes offered in
the list published in June was £2,500, being nearly £200 more than was
offered the preceding year. Some new prizes were offered in various classes.
The Canada Companv continued their lioeral prizes for wheat, hemp and flax.
The President ottered a prize of £15, to be given to the horse which should
receive the first prize as a stallion for agricultural purposes, if imported from
Europe since the Exhibition of 1856, and the treble prize for sucn imported
auinial as in accordance with the list, to be increased to £35, making the
whole prize the sum of £50. There were also a number of sweepstake prizes
offered for horses, cattle and sheep, as noticed at another place. The numbers
of entries of animals and articles for exhibition was over 4,400, being about 600
in excess of any previous yeat. However, owing to the difiiculty of getting
forward by the railway, a large number of articles and animals entered in the
books did not appear upon the ground, and many of the things that did appear
did not arrive until a late period of the fair. Still, upon the whole, the entire
226 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
number of animals and articles exhibited probably exceeded any previonB year.
The weather, during a great part of the time of the Exhibition, was extremely
imfavourable, and of course affected the result Tuesday, the first day of the
Exhibition, on which day the judges were to commence their inspection, and
members to be admitted after 12 o'clock, the weather was all tnat could be
desired, but the articles had not nearly all arrived, and the arrangements were
incomplete.
Wednesday, the first day of admitting the public, was generally wet and
cold, with occasional sunshine. Owing to detention by the railway, articles
which should all have been upon the grounds the previous day before noon
were arriving all day, and the judges conseqtiently could not get through with
their duties so promptly as was desired
On Thursday, the principal day, rain fell heavily all day, the air was cold
and disagreeable, and the ground, although a sandy porous soil, became, from
the trampling of the crowd of visitors, deep mud Nowithstanding, visitors
arrived in large numbers from all quarters, and these, added to those already
in the town, made the number of persons on the grounds very large, and in
spite of the rain and cold the animals and articles exhibited were industriously
examined. In the afternoon. Sir William Eyre, Administrator of the Govern-
ment, and other distinguished persons, arrived. On Friday, the closing day,
the weather was more propitious, and visitors were numerous. After the
holding of the annual meeting of the Directors of the Association, the delivery
of the President's Address and the reading of the prize list, the payment of
the prizes and the removal of articles from the grounds commenced.
A brief notice of the several departments of the show is herewith subjoined :
The show of blood horses was smeJl, about equal to previous years ; some veiy
good animals. Of agricultural, draught, carriage and saddle horses the show
was very large, considerably in excess of previous years ; some very superior
animals. The show of Durham cattle was rather larger than at any previous
show, and the animals of as good quality ; of Devons, also larger ; of Herefords
about the same as at previous shows, a very meagre display ; of Ayrshires, a
smaller display than formerly ; of Galloways, nearly the same number as in
1856, and larger than at any other previous exhibition ; of grade cattle the
number entered and exhibited was about the same as at either of the two pre-
vious exhibitions ; and of fat and working cattle, the number was a little greater.
The number of Leicester sheep was greater than at previous shows ; of
Gotswolds greater ; of Cheviots about equal to the show of 1856 ; of Southdowns
greater than previously ; of Merinos and Saxons greater than in 1856, but less
than in 1855 ; of long-wooled sheep, a new class introduced in the list, not
being any of the above mentioned pure breeds, sixty-two entries and a good
show ; and of fat sheep a larger show than formerly. Of pigs the entry was
less than in 1856, but larger than in 1855; the entry of the small breeds was the
most numerous, and of these some specimens of Essex breed appeared to be the
favourites. The number of poultry entered was not quite so large as at King-
ston, and of those entered not much more than half came forward ; still the
show in this class was large and interesting.
" In the whole department of live stock," a Toronto newspaper said, '* The
entries are much more numerous than formerly, and the quality of them very
LOCAL HISTORY. 227
superior, a feature in the exhibition espeeially desirable, as a proof of the pro-
gress of the Canadian fanner, and the growing interest taken in the improve-
ment of fanning stock." The entries of grain and seeds were not so numerous
as in 1856, but more so than in 1855 ; the season having been a very unfavour-
able one for the production and harvesting of grain, the exhibition in this
department could hardly be expected to be veiy superior; there were, however,
some very good samples, and in wheat the display was better than was anticipated.
The entries in n ots, etc., were more numerous than at either of the two pro-
ceeding shows, and the specimens of good average quality. Of fruits, plants and
flowers the entries were more numerous than formerly, and the specimens good*
A considerable part of the display in this department came from Montreal, and
from Bochester, N. Y. The display of open-air peaches, principally from Niagara
and the neighbourhood of Hamilton, was very fine.
In the department of dairy products, domestic groceries, &c, the number of
entries was not so large as at Kingston in 1856, but more than double that at
Cobouig in 1855. In agricultural implements the number of entries was double
that at either of the exhibitions of the two previous years, there being fifty
entries of ploughs alone. Some of the celebrs^ied Howard ploughs, from Eng-
land, were exhibited by Rice Lewis & Son, Toronto. The entire department
exhibited an improvement in a proportion equal to the improvement of the
whole exhibition. There were not many cultivators or implements of that
description, but of straw cutters and fanning mills there was a great abundance.
The competition in reaping machines was very close, and in the straw cutters
the judges found it expedient to separate those in which horse-power was em-
ployed from the rest of the class. The following notice of the trial of the
implements is taken from a Toronto daily newspaper :
'' This (Wednesday) morning a trial of plougns, mowing machines, and com-
bined mowers and reapers, took place upon Mr. Qood'»Jarm, about two miles
from town. A very nice piece of sod was selected for the ploughs, which
were set to work, and the judges then went on to test the reapers in an oat
field adjoining. Some twenty-eight or thirty ploughs were taken out for
trial ; nuuiy of them were remarkfU)le specimens of nice workmanship both in
iron and wood ; and there was presented every variety of shape and pattern,
some new, and others of old and approved make.
*' The number of entries in Fine Arts exceeded that at either of the two pre-
ceding shows, and the display was highly creditable. Amongst the specimens
perhaps the photographs, coloured and uncoloured, attracted the greatest atten-
tion ; they exhibited considerable advance in the style of execution. There
were but few professional exhibitors in the Fine Arts Department ; many of
the amateur performances possessed considerable merit, while others were of
a very indifferent or inferior order. Of Indian specimens there were but few
entries of manufactured articles enumerated in the prize list The things
shown were principally heirlooms and relics, some of them of an interesting
character historically. G. H. M. Johnson, or ' Onwassyshon,' chief of the Six
Nations, was the largest exhibitor. '
"* An entire transept of the Floral Hall was occupied with the various educa-
tional requisites which may be obtained for public schools from the depositories
in connection with the Education Office ; this part of the exhibition attracted
228 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
much attention from the beautiful finish of the apparatus and its general
appearance ; the educational coat of arms, in relief, displayed in front, and the
whole decorated with evergreens and suitable mottoes. The maps were sus-
pended from a stage erected on the centre of a platform, and comprised not
only those of an elaborate character, such as raised or embossed physical
maps, but also those in use in our Grammar and Common Schools. Various
zoological, botanical and geological charts, showing the principles of those
important sciences in a clear and instructive manner ; most of the maps were
on so large a scale that the most numerous class can be instructed with the
same ease and facility as the single student. The object and tablet lessona
were an interesting display of themselves ; they embraced zoology, botany,,
natural phenomena, scripture history, and reisuling and arithmetic. The exten-
sive collection of philosophical instruments snd apparatus had been selected
with much care, in order to obtain those of practical utility as well as scientific
interest, thus ensuring intellectual improvement and enriching the mind with a
love for philosophiccd observations. The selection consisted of apparatus for
mechanics^ hydraulics, pneumatics, optics, astronomy, electricity, galvanism,
chemistry, &c., showing the laws of matter and motion, centre of gravity, fall of
bodies, gyroscopes, instruments illustrating the centrifugal forces and the ten-
dencies of bodies to revolve upon their shorter axis, mechanical powers, forcing
and lifting pumps, Hiro's fountain, hydrostatic bellows, Archimedes' screw pump^
and air pumps of various sizes, with numerous instruments for experiments in
pneumatics; microscopes, models of the eye, magic and phantasmagoria lanterns
with appropriate slides, planetariums, with other astronomical apparatus of a
new and novel description, electrical machines, electro-magnetical and galvanic
apparatus, instruments for exhibiting the properties of heat, chemical labor-
atories prepared for the use of schoolmasters and lectures, mineralogical and
geological specimens, with models showing the formation of strata, crystals, &c.,
terrestrial and celestial globes, varying in size from two and a-half to thirty-six
inches in diameter, plaster casts and other drawing models, sectional models of
machinery, including stationary and locomotive engines, and that greatest of
wonders — ^the electric telegraph. In this department there was a Canadian
section displaying school furniture, map stands, reading tables, bent levers, sub-
stitute for black-boards, geometrical forms and solids, and sectional models of
steam engines. These are of much importance to the teacher, as the difficulty
of explaining the interior and exterior of the machine is removed, the whole of
the interior being laid open, the entire machinery exhibited, every valve opening
and closing, the pistons rising and the whole moving in the same manner as a.
complete engine. The entire collection was well fitted for philosophical research
and experimental demonstration, thus meeting the aim of the department, as
expressed in a circular addressed to Local Superintendents and others by the
Deputy Superintendent previous to the exhibition, comprising a full view of
the most important practical applications of the sciences to education ; and it
is by these things only that impressions of lasting utility can be given, and
which alone can promote the intellectual welfare of our country."
The twelfth annual exhibition, considered as a whole, was certainly not inferior
to any one of its predecessors, and had it not been for the exceedingly unfav-
ourable weather, in connection with the want of sufficient railway accommoda-
LOCAL HISTORY. 229^
lion, it would have far surpassed anything of the kind previously witnessed in
the Province. The cash receipts were about £8,000, which is more than at any
previous show.
On .Thursday, October 1st, His Excellency Sir Wm. Eyre, Commander-in-
Chief of the Forces and Administrator of the Government, arrived at Brantford
by special train, accompanied by his suite and several members of the admin-
istration. He was received at the railway station by the Mayor and a number
of other gentlemen, who escorted him to the Town Hall, where the following
address was presented by the Town Council :
** To His Excellency Lievienant-Oeneral Sir William Eyre, K.C.B,, Achninis-
troJtoT of the Oovemvvent of the Province of Canada^ and Comfinvander-in-
Chief etc,
"We, the Municipal Corporation of the Town of Brantford, in the County of
Brant, in Council assembled, would approach your Excellency in the language of
congratulation, to tender to your Excellency a hearty welcome on this your first
visit, as Administrator of the Government, to our young and rising town, to
honour and encourage by your presence those great and noble pursuits, some
of the results of which are about to be exemplified on this the occasion of the
Twelfth Annual Provincial Exhibition, under the auspices of the Agricultural
Association of Canada West, an institution which reflects the wisdom of its
founder, a wisdom which is annually proclaimed by presenting to the world
an honest rivalry and competition in the improvements and progress that have
been made in idl those things which constitute the wealth and bespeak the
intelligence, wisdom and true greatness of the people of this fine Province'
Your Excellency is now within the precincts of the territory of the ' red man,''
granted by an ancestor of our present most gracious and beloved Sovereign to
him and his posterity, as a reward of that fidelity, valour and attachment to
the British Crown which characterized his race in perilous times past, from
which, unused to the arts and appliances of civilized life, he has gradually
retired, leaving it to the genius, industry and enterprise of the ' pale face ' to
use and cultivate in such a manner as to produce those happy, encouraging and
eheering results we are about to witness.
" Your Excellency, conversant with our history, will readily perceive that
the inhabitants of this town and county, in selecting a name, actuated by the
recollection of the valour and attachment which gave birth to a monarch's
grant, adopted that of an illustrious and distinguished chief of the ' red man,'
Joseph Brant, whose last resting place is within sight, and whose funeral
obsequies were a short time ago a second time attended by thousands of his
white brethren from all parts of t^ie Province and neighbouring Republic. We
hail in your Excellency an old and faithful servant of our noble Empire ; one
whose fame is inseparably connected with the deeds of prowess and success
which characterized the arms of England* and her allies in the recent struggle
against the encroachments and bad faith of a government, the leading feature
of which has always been implacable and uncompromising enmity to the great
principles of freedom which we enjoy under our government and excellent
municipal institutions, of which we are justly proud, and which, in the course
of events, your Excellency has been called upon to administer and maintain. .
U80 HISTORY OF BRANT CX)UNTY.
"While congratulating your Excellency and oarselves on this mostanspicioos
occasion, we would also express our unfeigned regret that in other lands scenes
of atrocity and barbarism are being perpetrated, which are altogether at vari-
ance with and repugnant to the peaceful and ennobling pursuits, to witness the
results of which has brought us together. And we would express the hope
that, in the good providence of Gtod, the day is not far distant when our
brothers in arms, now enga^^ed in the suppression of those acts of atrocity and
barbarism, may, like your Excellency, be witnessing scenes more congenial to
the true and great interests of the human family, similar to those that are
about to engage our attention, and which we hope your Excellency may be
loi^ spared m health and happiness to enjoy.*'
His Elxcellency replied verbally in fitting terms to the address, after which
another was presented by the Mechanics' Institute of Brantford, as follows : —
** To His Excellency LievieTiant-Oeneral Sir WiUiam Eyre, K.C.B., etc
" May IT PLEASE Your Excellency :
"The President and members of the Brantford Mechanics' Institute beg leave
to welcome your Excellency to this town on the auspicious event of the first
exhibition being held therein of the agricultural^ manufacturing, educational
and artistic pr^uctions of the Province. We assure your Excdlency that it
is with feelings of gratitude that we observe the interest manifested by you on
this and other occasions in the industrial arts and prosperity of this Province.
As a Mechanics' Institute our special concern is in the advancement of the
various classes of manufactures and handicrafts of every kind ; and we think
we have reason to be proud of the progress we have made therein, as well as
in population, commerce and wealth, during the last twenty years, a progress
with which the surrounding country has kept pace in its improved agricultural
implements and farm buildings. We name the period of twenty years, because
some of us old residents remember with pleasure that at that distance of time
your Excellency dwelt amongst us; and we therefore venture to hope that it will
not be without personal interest and a gratifying reminiscence uiat you wit-
ness the rapidity with which towns grow in Canada.
*' We shall only just allude to your Excellency's service during that period as
a distinguished warrior, but though men of peace ourselves, we trust we shall
never fail in gratitude to those who peril their lives to defend the honour of
our mutual country when assailed by foes ; though we rejoic3 when they can
' beat their swords into pruning hooks,' and share with us the quiet enjoy-
ments of home. This happy state of things is for the moment interrupted by
the Indian revolt ; but a swarm of hornets, though it may sting and irritate us
for a time, has no power to inflict any enduring injury, so we solemnly trust
that the Providence which has hitherto favoured and protected the British
nation will remove these threatening eastern clouds, and restore us peace,
as a happy omen of which, and a complete epitome of human life, we regard
the scene presented here to-day, where agriculture, mechanics and arts combine
to offer to our view their varied productions, under the patronage of a soldier
like your Excellency. In conclusion, we beg to present our best wishes for the
continued health and happiness of your Excellency and all connected with you."
LOCAL BISTORT. 231
His Excellency replied, and expressed his high gratification at receiving
«uch an address, for there was no institution more honourable to its promoters
than the Mechanics' Institute. Nothing could be more gratifying than to see
4tll classes assembled to cultivate their minds, making other important matters
subordinate to these higher interests. He then proceeded to the show ground,
where he was received by the President and officers of the Association. His
Excellency was first conducted to the Committee Room, where the President,
Mr. Alexander, read the following address :
'**ToHi8 ExcdUsncy General SirW. Eyre, K,C3.y Administrator of the Ooveninunty
Ae, &e.
^May it please Your Excellency :
" We, the directors and members of the Provincial Agricultural Association,
desire to assure you that we hail with great pleasure your Excellency's presence
at our great Annual Exhibition. The farmers of Upper Canada are always
happy to have an opportunity of paying homage and respect to Her Majesty's
Representative in this Province, and we tender to you a warm and cordial wel-
come in that honoured position ; but we also recognize in you a distinguished
representative of that gallant and devoted army which so nobly sustained the
renown of British arms in the Crimea. Tour Excellency has returned amongst
us clothed with the honours of the battlefield, and we earnestly pray that you
may long be preserved to lender further services to your country, and to enjoy
an the honours conferred upon you by our beloved Sovereign."
His Excellency replied as follows : " I am very much obliged to the mem-
bers and directors of the Agricultural Association for their kind and hearty
reception, and for the address presented to me. I was very much afraid that I
should not have had the honour of attending on this occasion, but nothing
would have prevented me from doing so but positive necessity. I have heard very
frequently of this great grain-growing country, and I saw something of it in
passing through on a former occasion, and although I looked then rather with
■a military eye, I could not be otherwise than struck with the appearance of
the country. It is very gratifying to me, in the high position in which accident
rather than my own merits has placed me, to be able to act in a civil capacity,
and to encourage the arts of peace, of which this society is one of the chief
promoters. Especially upon this occasion I am proud of being present, and I
am very much obliged to you for the manner in which you have received
■MA »
ne.
Severalgentlemen were then introduced to His Excellency, among whom
were the Hon. Washington Hunt, ex-Governor of the State of New York ; Mr.
Allen, of Black Rock; K W. Thompson, J. B. Marks, W. B. Jarvis, Hon. A.
Ferguson; the Sheriff of the County of Brant; David Christie, M.P.P.; D. B.
Stevenson, M.P.P.; F. W. Stone, and others. His Excellency then proceeded
round the grounds and inspected, as well as his limited time and the very un-
propitious weather would permit, the various articles that were exhibited.
The following are extracts taken from the address delivered at Brantford,
Ont, October 2nd, 1857, by George Alexander, President of the Agricultural
Association :
232 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
" Gentlemen of the Provincial Agricultural Assoclation, — If ever
there was a scene calculated to make the heart rejoice, and inspire us with
feelings of gratitude to an all-wise and beneficent Providence, it is that which
now greets our view. While revelling amidst the richest productions of the
earth, and the multifarious inventions of mechanical skill which proclaim
loudly the triumph of industry and human enterprise, onr attention is arrested
by the beauty of the surrounding districts, but more especially of that magni-
ficent valley in the distance, which was for ages the haunt and the home of the
Delaware and Mohawk, with its wild associations of deep interest. But we
pause to inquire by what magical influence the marvellous changes have been
effected which we now behold and over which we rejoice. It is the unswerving
industry of our population, and their devotion to the hardy and ennobling
pursuit of agriculture, which has transformed those vast forests into the green
pastures and rich cornfields now furnishing such abundance for man and beast.
It would ill become us, who are living in the enjoyment of so many advantages,
to forget the honour that is due to the early settlers of this land, whose endur-
ance and toil have contributed so much to our present position. It is the
increase flowing from^ their labour which has brought the cheering whistle of
the locomotive into the finest portions of our country, giving such value to every
district — ^that great harbinger of busy activity and industrial progress which
almost annihilates distance, and gives immediate vitality to the most sequestered
spots. Where are the old scenes of former days ? We search in vain for them
amongst the lingering vestiges of the forest, but we behold everywhere around
us happy and independent homes ; and, while the red man is rapidly receding
to other regions, we find civilization scattering broadcast her thousand comforts-
* and the blessings of a higher enlightenment. Never did a country dawn into
existence with brighter prospects than this, and, if its conquest has been achieved
at the cost of many hardships and severe toil, its inhabitants have acquired the
rich possession of a territory justly distinguished for the enduring fertility of
its soil and unlimited natural resources, while our climate has been found most
congenial to the growth and perpetuity of man's best energies. It is alsa
worthy of observation, as a distinguishing feature of our progress, that through
the judgment and moderation, the vigilance and foresight of our people, insti-
tutions admirably adapted to our growing wants have been secured, undei' which
we enjoy every privilege and right which the most ardent lover of liberty can
desire — institutions eminently calculated to diffuse the blessings of knowledge,,
even to the verge of the most remote settlements, and which are designed ta
foster the growth of all those arts of civilized life, upon the progress and
improvement of which not only man's immediate wants but out future wealth
and greatness must depend. What are the great objects which have brought
this vast multitude together ? We have come here to pay a just tribute of
homage and respect to the enterprise of our fellow-citizens who have carried
off" the highest honours of the day, and to behold and admire the results of
their industry, as displayed in the rich production of the earth, and in all the
inventions and beautiful handiwork designed to grace and adorn life. We claim
for great annual gatherings that they give vigour and vitality to the aspirations
of our people, and that, while they are the best public introduction to our
importers and improvers of stock, to the scientific husbandman, to our own
LOCAL HISTORY. 238
mechanics and manufacturers, extending far and wide the faiiie of their superior
skill, they cannot fail to raise in the public mind higher standards of excel-
lence, and exercise a salutary moral and social influence.
" I have felt deeply, gentlemen, my inability to do justice to the position of
trust and responsioiUty in which your kindness, has placed me, and I fear,
with all our endeavours, many important means have been overlooked of
furthering the mreat object we have in view. In a country where the chief
barrier to good liusbandry is the expense and scarcity of labour, there is not a
more important matter tiian the improvement of our harvesting and other
labour-saving implements, which it is peculiarly the province of this institu-
tution to promote in every possible way. The trial of the United States
Agricultural Society, at Syracuse, was a movement in the right direction,
although the results may not have equalled the expectations of ^ose present
There is a diversitv of opinion as to the best metnod of accomplishing this
object, but we doubt not that our association will next year adopt that which
is considered the most practical, and whereby the respective merits of the best
implements may be fuUy tested and afterwards made known for the benefit of
aU. Another great function of this society should be to elicit, by such means
as are likely to be most successful, and publish in a properly digested form,
the local experience of our best farmers — ^illustrating their respective systems
— ^while contributions should be obtained showing the practical beanng of
sdence upon this most important pursuit, and the money value of such know-
ledge to the farmer.
" How many do I now see around me who are eminently qualified to raise
the status of our Canadian agriculture ? And where, gentlemen, is there a
nobler object of ambition than to have one's name identified with the advance*-
ment of a rising country jsuch as this ? Man has invaded every province of
nature, and made every element tributary to his wants. We now travel by
steam, and employ as our . daily messenger the electric fluid. As a modem
writer of great force exclaims : ' Into how many channels is human labour
pouring itself forth ? What a rush into all the departments of trade ! What
vast enterprises agitate every community ! And while industry pierces the
forest and startles with her axe the everlasting silence, commerce penetrates
into every inlet, girdles the earth with railroads, and breaks down the estrange-
ments of nations.' One cannot regard but with admiration and wonder the skill
and science displayed in the varied improvements of British husbandry, the
greater part of which has been the work of scarce half a century. ' Prior to
1798,' observes a writer in the Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture, * hardly any
wheat was attempted to be grown in Scotland ; few potatoes were raised, and
the artificial grasses little known : but we have lived to behold a great change.
Waving fields of wheat are now to be seen ; drilled green crops everywhere
abound, and whole parishes of waste lands have been transformed into rich
cornfields, yielding heavy crops per acre and heavy weight per bushel.' Scot-
land has, by the industry and science of her sons, become one of the richest and
most productive countries in the worW^IiCt such results animate us to con-
tinued exertion, and if the siuUf^'^^^^IMjltemi^l^^fi largest P^^^^^^ ^^
our future welfare must flow, m ^^^^^^^^^BLanon the skill of
the husbandman. Agricultwj ^^^^^^^^^^^^ttrt, yielding
234 HisTORr OF brant county.
but a scanty return, or it may be practised as one of the noblest sciences which
can engage man's physical and mental energies, furnishing material plenty and
abounding wealth. If there is dignity in labour and human industry, that
industry becomes ennobled under the guidance of enlightened judgment, and
brings in its train a thousand blessings. As the poet observes :
' life without work is onenjoyed ;
The happiest are the best employed ;
Work moves and moulds the weightiest birth.
And grasps the destinies of earth.'
'' It is not the extent of cultivated surface, or the amount of expended toil^
that will ensure great results ; and if we aspire to become distinguished for
our agriculture, and to attain t^ a position of wealth, we must abandon that
most fallacious of all ideas that the farmer needs^ no education or science. We
see what modem science has done to ennoble and enrich Britain, many districte^
of which were originally barren and worthless. How favourable should our
prospects be, commencing our career with the accumulated fertility of ages.
But while agriculture is and will continue to be our chief and leading interest,
there are other objects which must enlist the enterprise of our people. The
husbandman raises more than he can consume, while, in this age of liigh civili-
zation, he is the creature of a thousand wants. We must look to com-
merce and manufactures to supply those wants, and to give a marketable value
to all our surplus produce. We must foster in every way those branches of
industry which will give population to our towns and cities, secure to us a-
home market, diminish the amount of our imports, and consolidate our wealth.
There is a marked spirit of enterprise abroaa in our countiy ; and when we
look at our noble St Lawrence, and those great inland seas which, along with
our railways, afford such facilities for carrying on all our commercial exchanges-
— when we regard the boundless extent of water power, the certain local demand
for all manufactured products, while we have territory that can sustain a dense
and teeming population — ^I say that we cannot behold all this without feeling,
that our country presents an unlimited field for human enterprise. We are
living in a state of society where the invidious distinctions of rank and wealth
are little known, and industry and integrity command everywhere respect^
while the highest posts of honour and emolument are fairly and equally opened
to alli We have thus every natural incentive to honourable ambition, and a
thousand considerations to animate us to strain every nerve for our country's,
advancement. It would, perhaps, not be out of place to observe that we cannot
unfold the pages of history without perceiving that every nation which has risen
to eminence in ancient or modern times has been distinguished for the patriot-
ism of her sons. What led to the boundless conquests, the renown of ancient
Greece and Borne ? What absorbing passion animated the immortal Wallace
to such deeds of heroic valour and self-sacrifice ? His memory will be warmly
cherished to the end of time. What noble enthusiasm led the British soldier
(for those regiments were composed alike of men from the rural districts of
England, Scotland and Ireland) to scale so gallantly the heights of Alma, and
rush into the sanguinary but triumphant struggle at Inkerman ? We unhesitat-
ingly reply, a far higher honour than that of gain. The fame of British valour,.
LOCAX HISTORY. 235
the integrity of the Empire, the fature peace of Europe, and the cause of.
liberty throughout the world hung upon the issue. But in this utilitarian and
wealth-amassing age, or at least in this region of the globe, our swords have
been turned into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks; and we
behold in the great neighbouring Bepublic and elsewhere this spirit of nation-
ality warming into life a general zeal to excel in all the arts of peace, and &
thirst for national pre-eminence. May this great public virtue continue to
manifest itself amongst us, stimulating the improvement of our agriculture,
the increase of our manufactures, and the extension of our commerce, and im-
buing all with anxious concern for the public interests of our countiy. ' Zeal
for the public good,' sajrs Addison, * is the character of a man of honour, and
must take place of pleasures, profits and most other private ends. Whoever is
wanting in this. motive is an open enemy or inglorious neuter to his race, in
proportion to the misapplied advantages with which nature and fortune have
bleaaed him.'
** Let all therefore be ready when called upon to fill with diligence and
honour the various ofBces of public trust and responsibility. Let our leading
practical farmers rally round our agricultural societies, support liberally our
agricultural journals, and persevere in such efforts until a thirst for improve-
ment pervades every homestead. Let nothing, gentlemen, dampen your ardour
in upholding Our national school system, which has been framed and intro-
duced with so much ability and Judgment. In giving education to the young,.
I mean in its highest sense, we leave the richest legacy which one generation
can give to another. Let us make every sacrifice to secure the best methods of
our country for our public teachers, and in addition to all the other branches of
knowledge, let the elements of agricultural and mechanical science be taught
in our more advanced schools, which, if only to a limited extent, will be sowing
the first seeds from which an after crop will spring up. But above all, let us
uphold our great depositories of science and learning, — I mean our academic
and coU^iate institutions. To them it is that we must look for that higher
mental discipline which makes the pathways easy to the great ocean of know-
ledge and truth. The chairs of our universities are at this moment filled by
men of the highest attainments. But above all, it is important that the
Canadian character now forming should be moulded upon the noblest founda-
tions, and be imbued with the virtues of the races from which we have sprung.
And if we wish to see our country accomplish its highest destinies, we must
have loftier objects of ambition than the mere attainment of wealth. It was
observed of Britain by an American statesman, that the sun never sets upon
her dominions, and that the beat of her morning drum makes one unbroken
sound round the world. But the immensity of ner wealth and the extent of
her dominions have been powerful instruments in her hands to accomplish
good. Where are we to Iook for the real elements of her greatness ? In the
soundness of heart and principle pervading the great mass of her people.
While luxtury has never palsied her enterprise, her sons have contributed largely
to the treasury of science and art, and to the general enlightenment of the
world. Her wealth, her energies and her strength have been devoted to some
of the noblest objects. She has given liberty to the slave, and has been the
messenger of the glad tidings of peace from pole to pole. Shall it be said that
236
fflSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
OQT Canadian soil is unfavourable to the ^owth of intellect and genius, and of
those virtues which have cast so bright a halo around the parent country ?
Who can behold our township and county libraries, which have justly been
pronounced * the crown and glory of our institutions/ carrying to one's door
the accumulated wisdom of ages, or witness the earnestness with which
throughout our rural districts, the great mass are anxious to further every
good object, and not feel inspired with the hopes of a bright future ? But we
must guard the young against the shoals and quicksands which beset our path,
unfold to them the higher enjoyments of the mind which will elevate them ;
give them self-respect, and enhance the value of all their other possessions ;
teach them that a nation's honour is a nation's greatness, and that its true,
greatness consists in the virtue of its citizens ; but above all, we must teach
them that it is to the bounty of an all-merciful Providence that we are indebted
ior all the blessings we enjoy."
1 0dJ2■^yf-^C^..n'-^^^^
TW NEW Y4»PK
PUBLTC L 1 4> I \ A 11
ASTOR. ;.^M-%\
TILOEN » '.
LOCAL HISTORY. 239
CHAPTER VIII.
Township Statistics. — Assessment Rolls. — Census of 1881.
List of Post Offices.
Township Statistics.
Fiom the Census of 1881 we gather the following information relative to the
<liffeTent townships of the county.
Biantford Township began to be permanently settled about the year 1806,
and is now all settled, the real settlement of the land having been completed
aboat the year 1851. The soil is very good, with no stony, hilly, low, swampy
or wet springy land, and the whole township is rolling and cultivable. Six-
eighths of the area could be called first-class land, and the rest second or third
class. Of heavy clay soil there is one-eighth ; three-fourths clay bottom ; and
one-fourth sand and gravel bottom. Of clay loam there is two-eighths ; three-
fourths clay bottom, and one-fourth sand and gravel bottom. Of sandy loam
there is four-eighths ; three-fourths clay bottom, and one-fourth sand and gravel
bottom* There is one-eighth equally divided of sapd ; one-eighth gravelly, and
one-eighth black loam. The township is jJeneJmllySvell watered, water being
found at the depth of from ten to forty feet Fitiat-class farms are worth $80
per acre; second-class, $55 per acre; and third-class, $40 per acre. One-
twentieth of the land is now stumpy, and the rest clear, the stumpy being
generally pine; Nine-tenths of th& farms are under first-class rail and board
fence ; about nine-tenths of the buildings are first-class, and about three-fourths
of the outbuildings could be called first-class. The land being rolling, very
little tile is used. All the farmers use improved farm machinery, and two-
thirds of them use salt and plaster for fertilizers, other fertilizers not being
used much ; plaster is used upon clover, salt upon all spring grains and roots.
Of the area two-tenths is sown in fall wheat, which yields 18 bushels to the
acre ; one-tenth in barle}% 24 bushels to the acre ; one-tenth in oats, 35 bushels
to the acre ; one-twentieth peas, 20 bushels to the acre ; one-twentieth corn, 30
bushels to the acre ; one-eightieth potatoes, 150 bushels to the acre ; one-fortieth
in turnips, 600 bushels to the acre ; one-twentieth other roots, 600 bushels to
the acre ; two-tenths hay, one and one-half tons per acre ; pasture lands, two-
tenths ; orchards, one-eighth. The stock raised is principally short-horn cattle,
Berkshire and Suffolk pigs, and Clyde and blooded horses. The population of
the township numbers 5,421; acreage cleared, 56,678; stock raised — cattle, 512 ;
horses, 2,599 ; sheep, 6,162 ; hogs, 1,954
Burford Township was the first township in which settlers began to locate.
The first settlement was made during the latter part of the last century, but
15
240 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the whole township could not be said to have been settled until about 1860»
The soil consists of clay, sand and mixed clay, and sand loam ; one-eighth being
heavy day, one-eighth clay loam, one-fourth sandy loam, one-eighth sand, one-
eighth gravelly, and one-fourth black loam ; the subsoil being clay, sand and
gravel. The land is ^generally rolling, with veiy little bottom land, swampy,
wet or springy soil, and none stony, hilly or uncultivable. The land is abont
equally divided between first, second and third-class £arm lands, worth about
$20, $40 and $80 per acre, and through the whole township is very variable.
It is well watered, a good supply of excellent water being always procurable at
a depth of firom five to fifty feet. About half of the farms are under first-class
board, rail or stump fence, and as large a proportion of the buildings are brick,
stone or first-class frame. Very little of the land is underdrained with tile.
About three-fourths of the farmers use improved farm machinery. Plaster and
salt are used for fertilizing, from 80 to 200 pounds being used per acre ; plaster
for clover and grass, and salt for cereals. The proportion of land sown with
the difierent crops, and the yield per acre is about as follows : Fall wheat, one-
sixth, 15 bushels ; spring wheat, one-twenty-fourth, 10 bushels ; barley, one-
twenty-fourth, 25 bushels ; oats, one-twelfth, 35 bushels ; lye, one-fiftieth, 15
bushels ; peas, one-twelfth, 20 bushels ; com, one-forty-eighth, 40 bushels ;
buckwheat, one-forty-eighth, 20 bushels ; potatoes, one-forty-eighth, 150
bushels ; turnips, one-twenty-fourth, 400 bushels ; hay, one-sixth, one and a
half tons. One-sixth of the land is pasture, and one-forty-eighth orchard. The
timber consists of beech, maple, black ash and elm ; used for fencing, fuel and
lumber. There is an area in the township of 43,310 acres cleared land, and a
population of 4,861. There are 4,214 cattle, 2,169 horses, 4,609 sheep, and
1,540 hogs raised annually.
South Dumfries Township received its first settlei about 1812, and was all
settled by the year 1840. The soil, which is generally very good, consists of
clay and sand loam — two feet clay loam, three feet sandy loam. The south-
eastern portion is clay loam ; the south-west sandy loam ; and the north-east,,
north-west and centre, clay loam. The land is generally rolling, with about
one thousand acres of low or bottom land, about one thousand acres so hilly as
to be objectionable for purposes of cultivation, and about nine hundred acres
swampy. Two-thirds of the land is first-class, worth $70 per acre, the other
third being about equally divided, second and third-class, worth $50 and $40
per acre. Water is obtained always at a depth of from seven to seventy-five
feet, but generally at a depth of about thirty feet. Most of the farms are well
fenced, and most of the buildings are what might be termed first-class. All the
f armjBrs use improved farm machinery, and three-fourths of them use salt and
plaster for fertilizers. Fall wheat yields 18 bushels to the acre ; spring wheats
6 bushels ; barley, 25 bushels ; oats, 30 bushels ; peas, 10 bushels ; com, 35
bushels ; potatoes, 100 bushels ; turnips, 400 bushels ; and hay, one ton. About
4,671 acres are pasture land, 700 acres orchard, and 6,995 acres timber. The
stock raised is Clyde, English blood horses, Durham cattle, Leicester, Cotswold
and Southdown sheep, Berkshire and SufiFolk hogs and poultry. Of the first
named, 1,472 are annually raised ; of the second named, 2,796 ; of the third,
5,116 ; and of the fourth, 595. The township comprises 42,041 acres of cleared
LOCAL HISTORY. 241
land, and has a population of 3,474. There are within its limits two saw-mills,
three flouring mills, and an agricultural implement manufactory.
Onondaga Township, which was the last in the county to receive the atten-
tion of settlers, did not begin to be settled until 1836, but it was rapidly taken
up, and in the year 1848 was all settled, except 1,690 acres, which ia held as
an Indian reserve. The soil is very good, three-fifths being day loam, four
inches deep, with a subsoil of clay ; three-twentieths sandy loam, six inches
deep — suteoil, red clay and sand mixed ; one-twentieth gravelly soil, four inches
deep — subsoil, red clay and sand mixed ; and one-tenth black loam, eight inches
deep — subsoil, day loam. A plentiful supply of water can be obtained any-
where in the township at a depth of from twenty to thirty feet About four-
fifths of the land is rolliAg cultivable land, and the rest is low, flat, or bottom
land, with none hilly, swampy, wet or spongy. Three-fourths of the acreage
is first-class land, worth $50 per acre ; the rest is second and third-class, worth
from S35 up. A third of all the farms are under first-class rail and board fence^
and two-thirds of the buildings are first-class stone, brick or frame. Fall
wheat yields 15 bushels to the acre ; spring wheats 12 bushels ; barley, 25
bushels ; oats, 35 bushels ; peas, 20 bushels ; and potatoes, 150 bushels. There
are 17,332 acres of deared land in the township, and a population of over
1,500 souls ; 1,649 cattle are raised annually, 716 horses, 2,016 sheep, and 592
hogs.
Oakland Township settlements began in 1800, and the whole township was
settled in fifty-five years thereafter. The soil consists of clay loam and sandy
loam twoieet deep, with a subsoil of clay and limestone ; clay loam predomi-
nates in the east, and sandy loam in the west. The whole township is first-
class land, worth about $65 per acre, and is entirely free from stumps. The
farms are all under fence, principally rail fence, and nearly all the buildings are
first-dass. All the farmers use improved farm machinery, and nearly idl use
salt or plaster, for fertilizing. Fall wheat yields 25 bushels per acre ; barley^
30 bushels ; oats, 45 bushels ; peas, 20 bushels ; com, 100 bushels ; potatoes, 150
busheb ; turnips, 500 bushels; hay, one and a half ton. About 7,950 acres of
the land is deared, one-fifth pasture lands, and one-fiftieth orchard. The chief
product of the township is wheat. There are raised annually 769 cattle, 407
horses, 863 sheep, and 328 hogs.
Assessment Bolls.
The following is a statement showing the equalization of the Assessment
Soils for the difierent municipalities of the county, from 1853 to 1882, both
inclusive, by which a basis was found on which to levy the rate necessary to.
meet the expenditures of the county for each current year. The figures are
given entirely in Decimal Currency, in order to facilitate comparison of one
year with another. In 1853 the ratable property of the county amounted to
$5,647,640.00. To 1870 the amounts given are per acre; after 1870 the
sum total of the assessment is given :
242
HISTOBY OF BBAMT COUNTT.
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LOCAL HISTORY.
243
SXATEinSNT OF ClOUNTT ASSESSMENTS.
To Provide far Expenses of each current year, other than for School Purposes.
— ^The first year's expenses and proportions of assessment levied upon the various
municipalities within the county are here given in detail, so as to furnish an
idea to the reader of the nature of current expenses and necessary assessment.
It will be seen that amounts for debentures, interest thereon, and money paid
to contractors swell the sum total for 1853, to an apparently exorbitant figure.
Although the old system of financing in Halifax Currency did not give place in
the county accounts to the more simple innovation of Decimal Currency till
1858, the following tables are given on the latter system, in order to facilitate
comparisons : —
1853 — Debentures .....
Interest on Debentures ....
Clerk's and Treasurer's salary
Warden and Auditors ....
Lunatic and Wolf Scalps
Printing, Stationery and Advertising
Administration of Justice
Councillors' Pay .....
Balance due Contractors, and interest .
Contingencies, Building, Paris and Ayr Road Debentures
Township Officers' Fees
Gaol Furniture, &c. ....
Total
$2,666 66
928 00
550 00
180 00
340 00
320 00
3,182 75
275 00
2,440 00
5,227 69
1,560 00
600 00
$18,270 00
This sum was levied upon the various municipalities within the county in
the following proportions :—
tc
«
l(
Brantford Township
Burford
Onondaga
Oakland
South Dumfries Township
Brantfoid Town
Paris Village .
Total
From 1854 to 1882, both inclusive :-
1854 ....
1855 ....
1856
1857 ....
1858 ....
1859 ....
1860 ....
95.416 25
3,529 25
1.011 25
627 50
3,543 25
3.010 75
1,123 75
$18,270 00
$16,636 00
15,780 00
14,440 00
8,026 75
9,707 04
9.100 OO
10,360 00
244
HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTT.
1861
• •
• •
flO.541 00
1862 .
•
• •
•
9.492 00
1863
• ■
• ■
10,006 00
1864
9
• •
•
10,006 00
1865
• •
• •
9,380 00
1866
• •
1 • 1
1 •
14,580 00
1867
• ■
• •
11,330 00
1868
• «
• 1
•
9,318 26
1869
• •
•
10.029 72
1870
• •
> •
10,210 00
1871
• •
• •
12,047 00
1872
• 1
( • <
• • •
13,950 13
1873
• •
•
13,326 00
1874
• •
* •
17,767 28
1876
• ■
« •
16,585 36
1876
■ •
• •
•
20,208 94
1877
• •
•
$23,007 70
1878
1879
Less amoont received from Dominion
Govemmenton aoooant of Adminis-
tration of Justice on Indian account, S2.512 70
Re Award from City of Brantford. 1,995 00
4.507 70
$18,500 00
Lessfor Criminal Justice from Provin-
. cial Treasurer
From Dom. Gov't on account of
Criminal Justice on Indian Ace...
From Auction licenses
From Fines and Jury Fees
From Registrar's Fees
Ftom City of Brantford, Be Award
From City of Brantford rent of Court
House and Gaol
$22,618 00
$4,500 00
1,000
100
50
190
2,000
00
00
00
00
00
443 00
.8.288 00
$14,330 DO
Less forCriminal Justice from Provin-
cial Treasurer
For Criminal Justice on Indian Ace..
From Auctioneers' licenses
From Fines and Jury Fees
From Registrar's Fees
From City of Brantford. lie Award, 2,000
From City of Brantford, Rent of Court
House and Gaol 448
$19,954 00
$4,000 00
1,300 00
100 00
60
140
00
00
00
00
8,038 00
$11,916 00
LOCAL HISTORY. 245
1880 $19,483 11
Less for Criminal Justice from Provin-
cial Treasurer $4,000 00
From Criminal Justice on Indian
Account 1,000 00
From Auctioneers' Licenses 100 00
From Registrar's Fees 75 00
From City of Brantford, Be Award 2,006 00
From City of Brantford, Rent of Court
House and Gaol . 448 00
7,629 00
$11,804 11
1881 . . • . $17,252 57
Less for Criminal Justice from Provin-
cial Treasurer $3,500 00
For Criminal Justice, Indian Account 1,000 00
From Auctioneers' Licenses
From Registrar's Fees and Fines,
From Interest on balances, etc..
From City of Brantford,
140 00
75 00
75 00
2,460 00
7,250 00
$10,002 57
1882 $16,651 76
Less Amount from Provincial Treasurer $3,000 00
Criminal Justice on Indian Account^ 1,000 00
City of Brantford .^ 2,48100
Auctioneers' Licenses 100 00
Registrars' Fees and Fines 120 00
Interest upon balances, rents, etc., 75 00
6,776 00
$,875 76
The Town of Brantford withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Council of the
County of Brant at the termination of the municipal year, 1876.
The amount for 1867 was exclusive of Ae sum of $1,000 voted in aid of the
erection of a Battalion Drill Shed in the Town of Brantford, for the use of the
Volunteer Militia of the county.
The following table shows the statement of assessments upon the various
township municipalities in the county for the support of Common Schools, and
the payment of salaries or allowances to superintendents thereof, from 1858 to
1882, both inclusive. As on other occasions in this work, the figures are given
here in Decimal Currency throughout, although that system was not employed
in the county books till 1858 :
246
HIsrOBT OF BBANT COIKIY.
1
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o
>5
00
00
00
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s
I
s
e
O
I
S
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5Q •-• ?D 3 dit*
OOD OOX C9 00^*
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5
CO
« « «
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8882888888888888888888888
S8S2888222228
OOXQOOd^QOQOXXOOXXaO
2
■c
B
OB
1
i
8885oS88888888Sg8g8SS 88888
888S88888888 888888 88838 88
o o
Tft Q 04 CO
X CC CO
s
or«t»i^xaoxxxc:c:09i
8
O
OC4
^ OJ «
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LOCAL HISl'ORY.
247
Birthplaces of the People.
SuB-DinucTS.
British Ides.
Canada.
Bbait OaUHTT.
EnglsDd,
Wales.
Ireland.
Scotland.
Prince
Edward
Island.
Nova
Scotia.
New 1
Bnins- Quebec,
wick.
1
424 Square miles.
271,246 acres
BnntfoidCity..
Bnrfoid
Oakland
Braniford West..
TuacaTora
BiantfoidEaflt..
Onondaca
1329
381
38
344
19
405
118
304
420
724
138
19
99
15
181
97
91
197
413
135
28
147
8
123
85
257
281
1
i"
"3"
12
8
• • V •
• • • •
25
34
46
7
21
8
3
28
132
16
9
4
20
7 .
•
Dnmfriea South..
PariaTowiL
Total
3
1
7
11
18
3,358
1,661 1,577 8
> 1
53
159
217
Canada.
Other Possefsions.
Sfi-DBnucTS.
Ontario.
ManitolHk British
Columbia.
The
Territories.
New-
foundland.
Channel
Other
Possessions
France.
Biantford City.
Borford
6,410
4,482
827
2,358
2,831
2.6.^
1
1
18
2
8
26
13
12
Oakland
Brantfoid West
* * *
i 6
Toacarora
1
Brantfoid East..
1
Onondaga 1,384
Dumfries Soath.' 2,670
PftrisTown 1 2.078
k
1
1
1
r
1 2
Total
J
! 25,678
1
20
8
41
20
Srs-DianicTB.
Ger-
many.
Italy.
Russia
and
Poland.
Spain
and
Portugal
Sweden
N.and
Denm'rk
United
SUtes.
Other
Coun-
tries.
At Sea.
Not
Given.
Total
Population.
Brantfoid City...
Burfoid
46
22
6
2
1
429
123
20
73
14
65
27
105
107
9
5
98
9,616
5,466
1
Oaldand
I 939
Brantfoid West.
2
1
3,063
Toacarora.,
2,891
3,492
Brantfoid East...
13
1
2
2
2
Onondaga
Domf ries South.
13
1,739
3,490
3,173
40
30
4
1
3
Paris Town
1
Total
166
10 t
1
5
963
12
1
110
33,8^M)
248
HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Religions of the People.
AdTtn-
tilts.
«
B^iClflts.
GUho-
Roinui.
Chnxch
Oonsie*
g»ttOML
RRAirr OOUNTT.
8ra-l>itnicm.
B^itiflli.
wfU.
Tonken
Menno-
nitei.
Breth-
ren.
DM-
pki.
Brantford, City
6
89
1,569
466
204
626
662
545
307
684
225
* '39'
6
12
1
7
96
81
1,471
189
37
107
20
287
63
228
477
2,023
861
62
566
1,166
687
396
246
663
371
300
162
219
Bmf ord«
67
OttlrVind ,...,. - ,,--
BnntfonL West
11
66
18
10
2
29
TmicaroFa ,
Bimtford, Rant
10
39
Onondaffa.
^'*"*'*****"fj'^ ■••••••••••■••
DnnifrieA, South
4
54
279
PttriB. Town.
Total
36
4,968
n
8
274
2,879
6,460
1,424
86
BRANT cbuimr.
BplMO-
Bcforak-
•d.
Jews.
Lnthtr-
aaa. '
Methodisla.
SuB-DisnuoffB.
Ghondi
of
OMMda.
Epiaoo-
Bible
Chrte-
tien.
Primi-
tiTe.
OtiMT.
P»««i».
Brantford. City
9
8
20
2,014
1,764
288
939
416
1,092
363
1,204
730
371
681
166
110
92
373
249
26
2
1
94
179
Borford
132
O^tUprl
Brantford. .. , ,
1
1
19
.......
Tnacarora
537
Brantford. East
6
6
29
Onondaira
ThimfriiML South
3
6
14
Paiia, Town.
' "i
Tbtal
6
9
38
8,804
2,059
9
386
133
537
PraliytefMiu.
Pio-
tM*.
Antt.
23
ken.
1
33
6
2
Unl-
tnrl-
ana.
4
1
Cnivei^
Mliati.
other
Denoml-
nUlone.
No
ReU-
glon.
BKANT COUNTY.
BuB-DiBnuciiL
•
Cbnrch
in
C!h.
of
Soot-
land.
• • • •
fonn-
ed.
40
other
KM
glren.
Brantford, City.
1,427
432
30
4M
47
440
332
1,074
874
1
3
38
8
2
1
45
Oakland
BrantfoTd WesL
7
6
2
13
TnACftTova.
20
1
Brantford, East
Onnndfuyft^
1
. • . .
9
6
1
10
2
4
11
2
4
7
17
21
44
^^AJn/jj\u>Kca. .....a........
Dumfries, Sonth.
Paris. Town .
8
3
10
43
28
_
Totol
6,150
63
• • • •
23
24
96
6
305
LOCAL HISTORY.
249
Brantford,
Falkland,
Mt Vernon,
Burford,
Fairfield Plain,
Barley,
New Darham,
Oakland,
Ohsweken,
List of Post Offices.
Langford,
Harrisburg,
Paris Station,
St George,
Onondaga,
Burtch,
Mohawk,
Newport,
Cathcarty
Northfield Centre,
Hatchley Station,
Scotland,
Cainsville,
Glen Morris,
Paris,
Rosebank,
Conboyville,
Tuscarora.
CITY OF BRANTFORD.
CHAPTER I.
Location. — Incorporation. — The Award. — Town Council--
tors. — Town Officials. — City Aldennen and Officials. —
City Charter. — Notes. — City Buildings. — Victoria
Square. — Market Square. — IVater^Works.—Gas^lVorks.
— Fire Department. — Bridges. — Public Halls. — Hotels.
Location.
The land now occupied by the beautiful City of Brantford was originally
owned by the Six Nation Indians. It is one of the most delightful sites for
a city in Ontario, being situated on a high gravelly ridge, and having a fine
view over a large extent of country forming the fertile valley of the Grand
River. It is surrounded by an agricultural district unsurpassed in fertility of
soil and beauty of landscape.
On the 19th of April, 1830, the Indians made a surrender to the Govern-
ment of the town plot, which was immediately surveyed in part by Lewis
fiurwell. Deputy Surveyor, and sold by auction to actual settlers at an upset
price of ^10 per lot, and as much more as the purchaser saw fit to bid. The
first lot sold was No. 8, consisting of 21,000 square links on the north side of
Colbome Street, as laid out by Burwell, to William Muirhead, on October 15th,
1830. On the same day Lot No. 14, of 1,900 square links, on the south side
of Colbome Street, was sold to Jedediah Jackson. The same purchaser also
received a patent for a block of land containing one and one-half acres, situated
north of Greenwich Street, on the date above given. He also received a
CTant for "the westerly part of a certain block of land situated between
Greenwich and Water Streets, in the said village, whereon the grantee has
erected mills." This tract consisted of two acres, one rood and eighteen
Jerches, and was purchased October 15th, 1830, On the same day Jedediah
ackson purchased 25,745 square links on the north side of Grand River,
about where the canal enters the river. After this the lots were not taken
very rapidly, and only a few were sold each year. Later the town received a
new impetus, and began growing very rapidly. Shops were opened, factories
started, and enterprises of various kinds were encouraged to locate in the town,
which had advantages that struck the most casual observer as being of great
value. Its natural facilities for growth and expansion, coupled with the active.
LOCAL HISTORY. 251
V
enterprising spirit characteristic of its population, has enabled it to become one
of the most thrifty and successful manufacturing cities of the Dominion.
The town derived its name from the celebrated Mohawk chief, Capt. Joseph
Brant, whose tribe had a ford across the Grand River at the place where the
town now stands. As early as 1824 there were a few settlers on the site of the
town, but they were without title to their land. Stores were kept by Messrs.
Wilkes, Douglas and Gage ; shoe-shops by W. D. Dutton and A. Huntington ;
and a mill by Jedediah Jackson. The establishment of the Grand Eiver Navi-
gation Canal, in 1840, added very materially to the early prosperity of the
town, and later, the construction of. the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway
through the place gave it an increased impetus.
The first Town Councillors were elected, one member for each of the seven
wards, on Monday, the 6th of September, 1847, and the first Council meeting
was held at " Bradley's Inn " on the 9th September, in the same year, for the
purpose of electing a Mayor from among themselves, and William Muirhead
had the honour of becoming the first Mayor. In 1847, '48, and '49 one mem-
ber to Council was returned for each of the seven wards. In 1850 the town
was changed into five wards, and from that year till 1866, inclusive, three mem-
bers for each ward were returned. In 1867 and 1868 two Councillors were
returned for each ward. In 1869, 70', and '71 three were returned for each
ward ; from 1872 to 1877, inclusive, two were returned for each ward ; and
from 1878 till the present year, inclusive, three were returned for each ward.
The Council in the year 1847 rented a building, owned by a Mr. Mellish
and at one time used as a chapel, for three years for their meetings, at a
rental of £30 per annum. This building stood on the north-west comer of
Dalhousie and Market Streets, where Benjamin Foster's store now is. Council
moved into it October 6, '47, when the '' high-toned " title of " Town Hall "
was bestowed on the building.
On October 22, '47, the following remarkable and suggestive resolution was
passed by the Council : " Moved by Dr. Digby, seconded by Mr. Downs. Be-
solved, — ^That any member of this Council who comes here drunk, and acts like
a fool, be not listened to." — Carried. In 1850 the Town Council elected from
among themselves a Reeve and a Deputy Beeve to represent them at the
County Council ; this continued until 1866, inclusive. From 1867 to 1871,
inclusive, one Eeeve and two Deputy Eleeves were returned ; from 1872 to
1877, inclusive, one Beeve and three Deputy Reeves were returned.
From 1867 to the. time Brantford became a city, the Reeves and Deputy
Beeves were returned by the people. The Mayor was elected by the Council
from among themselves from 1847 to 1858, inclusive, after which the election
was by the voice of the people.
Previous to the election of Mayors, Reeves, and Deputy Reeves coming from
the people, their names appear among the Town Councillors. Afterwards their
names do not appear there, although they add to the number of Councillors.
INCORPOIIATION.
The town was incorporated by a special Act on 28th July, 1847, which Act
provided as follows: "Whereas from the increase of the population in the
i
252 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Town of Brantford in the District of Qore, it is necessary to make provisios
for the internal regulation thereof, be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most
Excellent Majesty, &c., Ac, that the said Town of Brantford shall be composed
of the lands situate in the Township of Brantford within the following limits
or boundaries, that is to say :
" Commencing on the north side of Colbome Street, in the eastern limit of
said town as originally laid out by the authority of the Grovernment of the late
Province of Upper Canada ; then north eighteen degrees thirty minutes east,
seventy-nine chains forty-five links, more or less, to the north-east angle of
the said town as laid out by the Government as aforesaid ; then south eighty*
four degrees thirty minutes west, eighty-two chains twenty-eight links, more
or less, to the north-west angle of the said town as laid out by the Govern-
ment as aforesaid, and to the eastern limit of a certain tract of twelve hundred
acres of land originally granted by the Crown to Abraham Kennedy Smith
and Margaret Kerby ; then south twenty-seven degrees thirty minutes west»
eight chains, more or less, to the south-east angle of a parcel of land belonging
to Peter O'Banyon ; then north, sixty-two degrees thirty minutes west, sixty
chains, more or less, to the western limit of the said lands granted by the Crown
to the said Abraham Kennedy Smith and Margaret Kerby ; then south twenty-
seven degrees thirty minutes west, one hundred and eight chains, more or less,
along the western limit of the said lands to the Grand River ; then across the
Grand River, obliquely with the stream, in an easterly direction, and passing
south of the large island, about thirty chains, to the limit between the farm
lands of Thomas Mair and the north part of the Brant Farm, granted by the
Crown to William Johnson Kerr ; then south twenty-seven degrees twenty-five
minutes west, forty-two chains, more or less, to the rear of the lota on the
south side of Burford Street on the plank road ; then south sixty-eight degrees ;
east thirty-nine chains, more or less, to the east side of Mount Pleasant road
and south side of Walnut Street, on the lands of Daniel Mercer Gilkison ; then
north forty-three degrees thirty minutes east, thirty-six chains, more or less,
along the south side of Walnut Street to the Grand River ; then easterly along
the south side of the Grand River, with the stream about thirty chains to
opposite the mouth of the Cove ; then east across the Grand River to the
south side of the mouth of the said pove ; then north-easterly along the easterly
side of the said Cove, about twenty chains, to the southern limit of the lands of
the Grand River Navigation Company ; then easterly along the south boundary
of the said Grand River Navigation Company's lands, about fifty-five chains,
to the western limit of the Mohawk Parsonage Glebe ; then north five degrees
thirty minutes west, forty-five chains, more or less, to the place of beginning."
The Act further provided '' that the internal management and government of
the said town shall be under the control and authority of a town council, to be
denominated The Mayor and Council of the Town of Brantford, to be elected
from among the male inhabitants of the said town in the manner hereinafter
provided," eta, etc.
The town was originally divided into seven wards, namely :
West Ward, lying south of the Grand River.
North Ward, lying north of the Grand River (including the two large
islands in the river), and west of Cedar Street and West Street from its inter-
section with Ce Jar Street
LOCAL HISTORY. 253
South Ward, lying south of Colbome Street and west of Alfred Street to
the river.
King's Ward, lying north of Colborne and between Cedar Street and West
Street from its intersection with Cedar and Queen Streets.
Queen's Ward, lying between Queen and Market Streets to their intersection
with West Street.
Srant Ward, lying north of Colbome, between Market and Alfred Streets.
East Ward, lying east of Alfred Street.
In 1849 an Act was passed by the Legislature, which came into force the
following year, for abolishing the territorial divisions of Upper Canada into
districts, and for providing for temporary unions of counties for judicial and
other purposes, and for the future dissolution of such unions as the increase of
wealth and population may require. (12 Vic, cap. 78.)
Among the " counties in Upper Canada which henceforth shall for all pur-
poses include and consist of the townships and places therein mentioned/
Schedule C to this Act provides that Wentworth shall include and consist of
the Townships of Ancaster, Brantford, Binbrooke, Barton, Glandford, Onondaga,
Saltfleet, and Tuscarora.
The town of Brantford was then divided into five wards, as follows :
" King^s Ward, Queen's Ward; Brant Ward, East Ward and North Ward, and
to comprise the following portions of the said town, respectively, that is to say :
" The said King's Ward to comprise all that part of the said town which lies
between Cedar Street and King Street, and north of the canal, together with all
that part of the said town lying south of the Grand Biver.
" The said Queen's Ward to comprise all that part of the said town which lies
north of the canal, and between lUng Street and Market Street, to their inter-
section with West Street
" The said Brant Ward to comprise all that part of the said town which lies
north of the Grand Biver and south of the canal, as far eastward as Alfred
Street, and north of the canal and between Market and Alfred Streets.
** The said East Ward to comprise all *that part of the said town which lies
east of Alfred Street."
The Awabd.
When in 1877 the Town of Brantford separated from the county, arbitrators
were appointed to ascertain the amount which the Corporation of the Town of
Brantford should pay to the Corporation of the County of Brant for the various
expenses for which the Town of Brantford might be liable to the county.
Alfred Watts was elected arbitrator on behalf of the town, William TurnbuU
on behalf of the county, and Judge Jones was appointed by the Lieut-Governor
of this Province to act as third arbitrator. On the second day of May they sub-
mitted their decision as follows, which was adopted :
** To all to whoTn these presents shall come :
" We, Alfred Watts, of the Town of Brantford, in the County of Brant,
merchant, and Stephen James Jones, of the Township of Brantford, in the said
County of Brant, Judge of the County Court of the said county, send greeting.
Whereas, by a certain by-law of the Municipal Corporation of the Town of
254 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Brantford, providing for the withdrawal of the said Town of Brantford from
the jurisdiction of the County oi Brant, pursuant to section twenty of the Act
respecting Municipal Institutions in the Province of Ontario, the said Alfred
Watts was appointed arbitrator on the part of the said Town of Brantford, and
one William TurnbuU was by by-law of the said Municipal Corporation of the
said County of Brant appointed arbitrator on the part of the said County of
Brant, and after such appointments the said Alfred Watts and William TurnbuU
on the third day of April, AD. 1877, duly appointed the said Stephen James
Jones as the third arbitrator under the said Act, and the said arbitrators after
being duly sworn, and having taken upon themselves the burden of the said
reference, and having heard and duly considered the evidence adduced and the
arguments of counsel for each of the said municipalities ; and there being a
difference between the said three aibitrators, we, the said Alfred Watts and
Stephen James Jones, do award and order of and concerning the matters so
referred by the provisions of the said Municipal Act to us as aforesaid, as
follows :
" We hereby find and award that the value of the interest of the said Town
of Brantford in the said county property, being the Court House, Gaol, and
Eegistry Office, and the site thereof, there being no county roads and bridges
within the said town, $7,460 ; and we award and direct that the said county
shall pay to the said town the said sum of S7,460 on the thirty-first day of De-
cember, A.D. 1879 ; and shall also in the meantime pay to the said town interest
upon the said sum at the rate of six per cent, payable quarterly, on the first
days of October, January, April and July in each year, but the first payment
of interest is to be computed from the date on which the separation between
the said town and county takes effect, and to be payable on the first of October
next.
" 2. We further award and direct that the said county shall have the right
and privilege of paying to the said town the said sum of $7,460, at any time
prior to the date so fixed, with interest, as aforesaid, up to such payment.
" 3. We further find and award that the said town shall pay to the said
county as rent for the use of the Gaol, Court House, and Registry Office, the
sum of $447.60, being six per cent, on the said sum of $7,460, payable as follows,
that is to say : The first payment to be computed from the date on which the
separation takes place, and payable on the first day of October next, and there-
alter to be payable quarterly, on the first days of January, April, July and
October in each year, until the expiration of three years from the first of
January, A.D. 1877.
" 4. We further find and award that the said town shall pay to th* said county
the sum of $75 per annum,until the expiration of three years from the first day of
January, A.D. 1877, as the proportion payable by the said town for repairs
to the Court House, Gaol and Registry Office ; the same to become due and
payable quarterly on the first days of January, April, July and October in
each year, but the first two of such quarterly payments to be payable on the
first day of July next.
" 5. We further find and award that the said town shall pay to the said
county in respect of the expenses for the administration of justice the sum of
$1,920 per annum, the same to be payable in quarterly instalments on the
. — = — - ^
TK HE* «•««
PUBUC UBRA»T
LOCAL HISTORY. 257
first days of April, July, October and January in each year, and to continue
until three years from the first of January, A.I). 1877, but the first two of such
quarterly instalments shall become due and payable on the first day of July
next, together with $89.60, already paid by the said county for the year 1877,
to constables of the said town for services on indictable offences.
" 6. We further find and award that in case the said county shall make any
additions in the nature of permanent improvements to the Gaol, Court House
or Registry OfEice Buildings, in that case the said town shall pay to the said
county six per cent, per annum upon the one-fourth part of the cost of such
permanent improvements, payable quarterly as aforesaid, until the thirty-first
day of December, 1879.
" 7. We further award and direct that in case the said county shall receive
from the Dominion Government payment for the claim made upon the said
(Jovemment by the said county, and now pending, for the reimbursement of
expenses incurred in respect of the administration of justice among the Indians,
for the past and prior to separation, then the said county shall forthwith pay to
the said town eighteen per cent of the amount so received.
" 8. We find that the said county has no indebtedness, and the said county
has not paid and is not liable to pay anything for the construction of roads or
bridges within the said town ; nor has the said town paid, nor is it liable to pay
anything for the construction of roads or bridges by the said county, without
the limits of the said town.
" 9. We further direct that this award, subject to the terms and conditions
hereintof ore expressed, shall continue aad -be in force until the thirty-first of
December, A.D. 1879. •' " '-
" 10. Lastly, we award and orSer that e^h.of the said municipalities shall
pay one-half of the arbitrators' fees, and of this award ; and if one municipality
pays the whole thereof, the other shall forthwith repay the half thereof to the
party so paying the whole ; and that as to all other costs each shall bear and
pay its own costs of and incidental to the said reference and this award.
" In witness whereof we have hereto set our hands and seals this second day
ofMay,A.D. 1877.
" Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of " A. Watts, [L S."
B. F. Fitch." " S. J. Jones, [L S.^
This award expired properly on the 31st day of December, 1879, but it was
allowed to run on for three years further at the same rate. In 1882 the County
Council took a move in the matter, and expressed themselves desirous of
entering into a new arrangement with the city and having a readjustment.
Consequently committees were appointed, one by the County Council and one
by the City Council, to consider jointly the several claims advanced. On the
7th October, 1882, the County Council in Committee of the Whole on the AwaYd,
reported as follows :
" To the Warden and CoundUora of the County of Brant :
** Gentlemen, — ^Your Council in Committee of the Whole on the Award be-
tween the City of Brantford and the County of Brant, beg to report that in
their opinion the award is unfair and unjust to the county.
16
258 HISTOBY OF BRAirr COUNTY.
" 1. In the opinion of your Coi/ncil in Committee of the Whole, the City of
Brantford should pay an annual rent for the use of the Court House, Gaol and
Begistry Office equaJ to seven per cent on one-fourth of $43,621, the cost of
the buildings, with improvements added.
" 2. That the City of Brantford should pay annually for repairs S146.97, being
one-third of average yearly expenditure during the past five years.
** 3. The average expenditure during the past five years for the administration
of justice, after deducting the Government allowance, has been $5,710.30. This
includes one-half fuel account, one-half gas account, and two-thirds of County
Treasurer's salary. The city should pay one-fourth of this average.
*' 4. Gaol supplies and sakries, after deducting amount paid by Government,
average $2,050, of which amount the city should pay two-thirds. The commit-
ments from the city being 1 7,054, as against 5,068 from the country.
" 5. The average expenditure for destitute insane during the last five years has
been $418.37, of which the city should pay one-third.
"Wm. Boddick,
" Chairman."
On motion this report was adopted, and on the 6th December following, a
communication from James Woodyatt, Esq., Clerk of the City of Brantford,
enclosing a copy of a report of the Committee on Finance adopted by the
Council of the city at a meeting held on Monday, 6th of Nov. last, was read, as
follows: "Your committee met the Committee on Award from the County
Council on Friday, the 20th ult., and on behalf of the city decline the conditions
proposed by the county as contained in the report of the Committee on Award,
they being, in the opinion of your committee, unjust to the city. Failing to
secure a modification of the same to which they could give their assent, your
committee on behalf of the city submitted for the consideration of the County
Council the proposition as subjoined hereto, viz. : This committee will recom-
mend that the city pay towards the several it^ms mentioned in the report of the
Committee on Award from the County Council in proportion of assessment as
equalized in the county, and the actual assessment in the city for the past five
years, that is to say ; the city to pay 23.75 : the county 76.25 ; the city 23| ;
the county 76 J."
The final upshot was a correspondence with the Lieut.-Governor, resulting in
the joint committees arriving at the following decision as a settlement, namely :
*' That the City of Brantford pays to the County of Brant the sum of $2,850
per annum from the first of January, 1883, for a period of five years from that
time, in full of all claims of the county against the city during that time, except
disbursements by the County Council for permanent improvements at the Gaol,
Court House and Begistry Office, on a quarter of which the city vdll pay to the
county interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum. All payments to be
made quarterly. This agreement was adopted and ratified by the County
Council on the 24th of February, and was anopted by the City Council on the
19th of February, and ratified on the 19th of March, 1883. This amicable and
reasonable settlement is due mainly to the great services of the City Clerk, Mr.
James Woodyatt, who deservedly received a substantial recognition for the
same at the hands of the City Council*'
local history. 259
Town Councillors.
1847.*— Dr. Di«?by, John W. Downs, Wm. Muirhead, James Wilkes, William
Walker, Joseph Gardner, Daniel M. Gilkison.
1848. — Wilkes, Walker, Downs, Dr. Digby, Gardner, Clement, Yardington.
1849. — ^D. M. Gilkison, Dr. Alfred Digby, John Steele, Duncan McKay, John
Turner, James Wilkes, Joseph Gardner.
1850.— Wm. Walker, Chas. Watts, H. Yardington, P. C. VanBrocklin,
Kirkland, John H. Moore, James Wilkes, James McMichael, James Woodyatt,
Jos. Dalton, Alex. Girvan, John MaxweU, Alfred Reid, C. R Wilkes, William
Matthewa
1851. — Merrigold, Lemmon, G. S. Wilkes, Clement, Sproule, F. S. Wilkes,
James Woodyatt, Downs, Kowe, Eeeley, Balfour, D. M. Gilkison, Cleghom,
Moore, W^atts.,
1852. — Huntington, Clement, Sproule. Woodyatt, Girvin, Bowe, Montgomery,
VanBrocklin, Dalton, McMichael, Spencer, Gilkison, Sinon, G. S. Wilkes, F. P.
Gof)ld.
1853.— Wm. Matthewe, G. S. Wilkes, F. P. Goold, D. McKay, James Kerby,
Wm. Sinon, A. Wilson, M Frazer, B. G. Tisdale, J. McMichael, Hugh Spencer,
James Woodyatt, R Sproule, D. M. Gilkison, Ed. Montgomery.
1854.— D. McKay, G. S. Wilkes, Jos. Quinlan, P. C. VanBrockUn, H. Peat-
man, James Kerby, Gilkison, W. Sinon, J. Turner, M. Frazer, D. McKerlie,
F. P. Goold, A. Watts, W. Matthews, H. Eacey.
1855. — M. W. Pruyn, K Roy, Alex. Girvin, John Ormerod, H. Bacey, W.
Matthews, John Elliott, A. J. McKeuzie, James Bellhouse, Wm. Sinon, I). M.
Gilkison, J. McNaught, John Turner, tTos. Quinlan, C. K. Wilkes.
1856. — ^Wm. Matthews, C. P. Cartan, Wm. Hocking, John Turner, H. Bacey,
John McNaught, Alex. Girvin, John Comerford, Abraham Kerby, Wm. Sinon,
W. B. Hurst, D. M Gilkison, John Elliott, Jos. Quinlan, Peter B. Long.
1857. — J. D. Clement, M. W. Pruyn, Abraham Kerby, Wm. B. Hurst, Henry
Sacey, Kobert Fair, Wm. Matthews, Joseph Quinlan, Edward Montgomery,
Thomas Botham, Wm. Young, Henry Yardington, Thomas Spencer, George S.
Wilkes, D. M. GUkison.
1858.— Wm. Sinon, Orr. Alfred Watts, M. W. Pruyn, Henry Yardington,
BDjughton, A. D. Clement, Henry Racey, Wm. Young, Elliott, Jos. Quinlan,
F. W. Popplewell, Bunnell, Lines, Abraham Kerby.
1859. — ^F. W. Popplewell, Wm. B. Hurst, Henry Bacey, Henry Yates, John
Elliott, James Wallace, Alfred Watts, John Turner, John Taylor, Joseph Quin-
lan, WnL Winter, James Creyk, Thomas Broughton, John Comerford, D. M.
Gilkison.
1 860. — Henry Yates, Thomas Hall, Irwin Pepper, Chris. Wilson, Andrew
Morton, Alf. Watts, Thomas Broughton, John Taylor, Thomas Glassco, W. H.
MorgHn, John Turner, James Wallace, Joseph Quinlan, Joseph Potts, John
Elliott.
1861. — Chris. Wilson, Alfred Watts, John Humburch, John Madden, Thomas
Pickering, F. H. Leonard, Geo. Foster, Ebenezer Boy, James Wallace, Thomas
McLean, J. J. Inglis, George Watt, Joseph Quinlan, Joseph Potts, Heniy Yates.
1862. — Wm. B. Hurst, Andrew Morton, Alfred Watts, Joseph Quinlan,
260 HISTOBT OF BRANT COUNTY.
Daniel Brooke, F. H. Leonard, E. Roy, James Weyms, James Wallace, Thomas
McLean, J. J. Inglis, Geo, \Vatt, Andrew McMeaas, J. P. Sutton, Henry
Yates.
1863. — Joseph Quinlan, Angus Murray, James Weyms, Christopher Wilson,
Wm. B. Hurst. Joseph Potts, Andrew McMeans, Alf. Watts, F. H. Leonard.
John Turner, Heurj- Wade, Geoi^e Watt, John Ormerod, Thomas McLean,
Matthew Butter.
1864. — Joseph Quinlan, John Comerford, John Ormerod, Christopher Wilson,
John Humbtirch, Joseph Craig, John Montgomery, John Elliott, John Turner,
Thomas McLean, Joseph Potts, Andrew McMeaas, George Watt, Ebenezer Koy,
Wm. Dalrymple,
1865. — Robert Peel, John Brethour, Joseph Quinlan, Hugh Spencer, Wm. B.
Hurst. John Humburch, Thomas Patterson, Thomas Glassco, John Montgomery,
John Elliott, James Wallace, Thomas McLean, Geoi^e Watt, Jonathan Hale,
James Tutt
1866.— .Joseph Quinlan, Robt. Peel. John Comerford, Wm. B. Hurst, John
Humburch, Altred Watts, Ebenezer Roy, John Montgomery, Thomas Patterson,
James ^\'a]lace, David Curtis, James Smith, Egbert Phair, Gcoi^e Watt,
Adam Spence.
1867. — John Edgar, John Brethour, John Minore, Wm. B. Hurst, Andrew
McMeans, E. Eoy, James Smith, Daniel Brooke, Robt, Pliair, Adam Spence,
1868.— John Edgar, John Ormerod, Wm. B. Hurst, Wm. Patterson, E. Roy,
Wm. Watt, Daniel Brooke, Andrew Morton, Robert Phair, James Tutt.
1869. — Geo. H. Wilkes, James Ker, John Comerford, John Ott, Joseph Quin-
lan, John Minore, John Taylor, Wm. Watt, David Plewes, Andrew Morton,
Thomas Cowherd, Thomas Whitaker, Robt Phair, James Tutt, James Spence,
1870— John Comerford, John Minore, David Plewes, William W. Belding,
Andrew McMeans, Watt, Taylor, Ker, Tutt, ilortou, Phair, Quinlan, Cowherd,
Ott, Wilkes.
1871. — John Comerford, Geo. H.' Wilkes, John Ormerod, Robt. Gray, Wm.
Whitaker, Joseph Quinlan, David Plewes, Wm. Watt, John Taylor, Edward
Brophey, Benjamin Hunn, James Tutt, Eobt. Pliair, Andrew McMeans, J, W.
Bowlby.
1872.— W. D. Cantillon, J, J. Hawkins, Wm. Whitaker, Robt. Gray, W. J.
Scarfe, Jackson Forde, Benjamin Hunn, W. W. Belding, Andrew McMeans,
Adam Spence.
1873. — Joseph Quinlan, Thomas Palmer, Wm. \Vhitaker, Thomas Large, Jas.
W, Digby, M.D., W, J. Scarfe, Wm. W. Shackell, W, W. Belding, Andrew
McMeans, Hubert J. Sutton.
. 1874.— -Joseph Quinlan, Thos. Palmei, Patrick Dunn, Wm. Whitaker, Geoige
Hardy, Ben. F. Fitch, Fred, VanNorman, DanL Costello, R. C, Smyth, J, W.
leph Quinlan, Wm, Whitaker, Thomas Large, Robert Shannon,
y, Daniel Costello, George King, J. W, Bowlby, Thomas Palmer,
\>t. Heniy, Dennis Hawkins, Wm, Stubbs, Thomas Large, George
J. Forde, Daniel Costello, Geoi^e Lindley, John Henry, Thomas-
LOCAL HISTORY. ' 261
1877. — ^Dennis Hawkins, Peter M. Keogh, Matthew A. Burns, Thomas Lai^e,
George Hardy, George H. Wilkes, George Lindley, Daniel Costello, Edward
Fisher, George Watt
Town Officials.
Mayors.— 1847, Wm. Muirhead ; 1848-9, Dr. Digby ; 1850, P. C. Van-
Brocklin; 1851, John H. Moore; 1852, A. Huntington; 1853, George S.
Wilkes; 1854, James Kerby ; 1855-6, Wm. Matthews ; 1857, Thomas Botham;
1858, M. W. Pruyn; 1859, Thomas Botham; 1860 to 1864, J. D. Clement;
1864-5, James Weyms ; 1866-7-8, John Elliott; 1869-70-71, Wm, Matthews;
1872, Wm.Paterson ; 1873-4. Wm. Matthews ; 1875-6-7, Dr. James W. Digby.
The town became a city in 1877.
Beeves. — None until 1850, Wm. Matthews; 1851, John Downs; 1852,
Joseph D. Clement; 1853, James Woodyatt; 1854, D. McKerlie; 1855-6,
John McNaught ; 1857-8, J. D. Clement, resigned Aug. 9, 1858 ; 1859-60,
Thomas Broughton ; 1861-2, James Wallace ; 1863, James Weyms ; 1864,
Joseph Quinlan; 1865, John Elliott; 1866-7, George Watt; 1868, Alfred
Watts ; 1869, F. H Leonard ; 1870-71, Alfred Watts ; 1872-3. W. J. Imlach ;
1874, G. H. Wilkes ; 1875, Alfred Watts ; 1876, Robert Phair, who was
succeeded in March by John Elliott, who served until the city charter was
obtained.
Deputy Reeves, — None until 1850, John H Moore ; 1851, Chas. Merrigold ;
1852, P. C. VanBrocklin; 1853, James McMichael; 1854, W. Matthews;
1855, John Elliott ; 1856, A. Girvin ; 1857-8, Henry Racey ; 1859, John
Comerford; 1860, James Wallace; 1861-2, Ebenezer Roy; 1863, Wm. B.
Hurst ; 1864, John Montgomery ; 1865, Geo. Watt ; 1866, John Montgomery ;
1867, Jno. Humburcher, H. B. Leeming ; 1868, F. H. Leonard, John Comer-
ford ; 1869-70, W. Paterson, W. J. Imlach ; 1871, W. Paterson ; 1872, R.
Phair, G. H Wilkes, W. Watt; 1873, J. J. Hawkins, R Phair, B. Hunn;
1874, J. W. Digby, B. Hunn, Geo. Watt ; 1875. W. J. Scarfe, B. Hunn, E.
Brophey ; 1876, E.'Brophey, G. H Wilkes, Thos. Palmer ; 1877, Jno. Ormerod,
Vf. J. Scarfe, J. J. Hawkins.
CferJb.— 1847 to 1850, J. R. McDonald ; 1850, Chas. Robinson ; 1851 to 1857,
G. Varey, Jr. ; 1857-8, Gabriel Balfour ; 1859 to 1877 inclusive, Jas. Woodyatt.
Attditors. — None until 1850, R. Sproul^, Allen Cleghoru ; 1851, J. L. Hughes,
J. K Buchanan; 1852, Allen Cleghoru, R. P. Cartau ; 1853, R P. Cartan, W. H.
Motgan ; 1*854, A. J. McKenzie, T. Botham ; 1855, R. P. Cartan, W. Johnston ;
1856, W. Johnston, W. H. Morgan ; 1857, E. A. Judson, D. Stevenson ; 1858,
R H. Street, R Hunter ; 1859, T. Rawlings, J. Howarth ; I860. J. W. Grayson,
J. C. Schultz ; 1861, J. W. Grayson, R P. Cartan ; 1862, J. W. Grayson, J. F.
Clark ; 1863, J. W. Grayson, C. C. Good ; 1864, M. X. Carr, R. McLean ; 1865,
D. Stevenson, J. W. Grayson ; 1866, A. Ness, J. W. Grayson ; 1867, W. H. C.
Kerr, F. Witty; 1868, W. H. C. Kerr, D. Stevenson ; 1869-70, J. W. Leth-
bridge, D. Stevenson ; 1871, J. Stevenson, W. B. Hurst ; 1872, Wm. Foster, T.
T. WaUon ; 1873, W. H. C. Kerr, S. Snyder ; 1874, W. H. C. Kerr, P. Mcintosh,
1875, W. H. C. Kerr, Wm. Foster ; 1876-7, A. N. Ogilvie, W. K. Kerr.
Treasurers.— 184:7, W. Walker ; 1848 to 1851, D. McKay ; 1851, G. Varey ;
1852 to 1857, J. Loughrey ; 1857 to 1872, D. McKay ; 1872 to 1877, inclusive,
James Wilkes. James AVilkes succeeded D. McKay in March, 1871.
262 HISTORY OP BRANT COUNTT.
ITigk BaUifs and Chief ConMahUs.—lS47-8,S,Pe&tma.Ti; 1849. Wm. Young;
1850, W. English ; 1851. H. Griffiths ; 1852, John Duncan; 1853, John Mai-
weU ; 1854 to 1877, T. M. McMeans. H. Griffiths succeeded May 31. 1877.
Cnr Aldermex.
1878. — Benjamin Hunn, J. J. Hawkins, Dennis Hawkins, Thomas Large,
William Whitaker, August Barehe, William Watt, Charles R Heyd, Geor^-e
Hardy, George Lindley. Joshua S. Hamilton, Thomas Elliott, Edward Fisher,
Robert Phair, George Watt.
1879. — Benjamin Hunn,DenQi8Hftwkin3,AndrewMcMeans, William Whitaker,
Thomas Large, John Ott, Charles B. Heyd, William Watt, Reginald Henwood,
M.D., Edward Brophey, Thomas Elliott, Daniel Costello, Thomas Webster, Geo.
Watt, Edward Fisher.
1880. — Thomas Large, Dennis Hawkins, James Ker, William Whitaker,
John Ott, Thomas Potts, Charles B. Heyd, George Watt, George Hardy, M. W.
Hoyt, George Lindley, John Mann, B. C, Smyth, Thomas Webster, John
Whalen.
1881.— Thomas Large, Jeremiah Wells, W. H. C. Kerr, Wm. Whitaker,
Joseph Elliott, Thomas Potts, Cbas. B. Heyd, Geoi^e Watt, George Hardy, J-
G. Cockshutt, John Harris, George Lindley, R. C. Smyth, Adam Spence, E. C.
1882.— Thomas Large, W. J. Scarfe, Dennis Hawkins, Wm. Whitaker,
Joseph Elliott, Thomas Potte, Chas. B. Heyd, Geoi^e Watt, Kobt. Turner,
Geoi^e Lindley, John Harris, M. W. Hoyt, Wm. Armitage, Wm. H. Hudson,
£. C. Passmoie
1883.— W. J. Scarfe, Thomas Lai^, Dennis Hawkins. Wm. Whitaker, Thos.
Potts, John Ott, Georse Watt, Robert Tamer, Samuel G. Read, W. S. Wisuer,
John Harris, Geoi^e Lindley, Wm. Armitage, W. H Hudson, Adam Spence.
Cnr Officials.
Mayors.— 1978-9, Robert Henry; 1880-81, Reg. Henwood, JtD.; 1882-.S,
Wm. Watt.
Clerk.— 1878 to 1883, James Woodyatt
Auditors.— 1878, W. Harvie, A- N. Ogilvie ; 1879, A. X. Ogilvie, T. Phair;
1980, T. McKenzie, W. K. Kerr; 1881, A. K. Bunnell, R. M. Willson ; 1882, J.
-nr T_.i.v^j__ yf ^ j^^^ . ^gg^^ Walter Mair.R. M. Wiilson.
1878 to 1883, James Wilkes,
ife.— 1878 to 1883, Henry Griffiths.
City Charter.
Brantfonl became s city by virtue of a special Act of the Pro-
ent, assented to March 2, 1877. and taking effect May 31, 1877
H). The preamble of the Act recites that "the Town of Brant-
represents that the assent of the electors of the town having
;be town has finally passed a By-law (No. 235) to withdraw the
LOCAL HISTORY. 263
Town of Brantford from the jurisdiction of the Council of the County of Brant,
and also represents that the said town contains a population of 10,000 souls, and
that its population is rapidly increasing, and that the said town, by reason of its
increased and extensive railway facilities, its large manufacturing and mercantile
trade, and its situation in the midst of a rich agricultural district, is now and
will continue to be an important commercial centre ; and whereas the said cor-
poration by their petition have prayed that the said town might be erected into
a city, to be called the City of Brantford, and whereby it is expedient to grant
said petition," etc., etc The Act goes on to provide for the incorporation of the
city, and for the Mayor and Council of the town to hold over. Section two
provides that the Council shall consist of a Mayor and fifteen Aldermen, three
of the latter to be elected from each ward.
On the day the above Act went into effect appropriate ceremonies were had
to celebrate the event ; the city was crowded with visitors from surrounding
points to take part in the festivities, and all conspired together to make it a day
long to be remembered. An appropriation was made by the city to furnish the
means necessary to defray the expenses of so grand a carnival ; speeches full of
lojralty, patriotism and thanksgiving were made by able and eloquent men, and at
nightthe immenseconcourse of people was entertained withabrilliant pyrotechnic
display. During the same year a police force — consisting of a chief, one sergeant
and three patrolmen — was established, but not proving a successful system, it
was abolished, and the duty of keeping the peace again devolved on the old
conservators, a chief constable and his assistants.
Historical Notes.
John Stalts built one of the first if not the first house on the present site of
the city, in 1805 ; it was on the ground now occupied by the Bingham] House,
and stood for a number of years after the village' became of considerable size.
Enos Bunnel built another cabin, near the ford and west of Stalts, about two
years later. These two, at the time Bunnel's was completed, were the only two
buildings at the ford. In 1818 there were twelve people at Brant's Ford, as
the place was then designated. In 1823 the settlement had increased rapidly,
and then contained a population of one hundred souls. In that year we find
Arunah Huntington keeping a shoe shop, and another shoe shop kept by a man
whose name has been lost. There were also a blacksmith shop and three small
stores, the principal customers of the latter being Indians, and the chief article
of trade, whiskey. About 1825, Marshall Lewis built a grist mill on the bank
of the river, and in 1830 John A. Wilkes erected a distillery. William Eerby
built a distillery in 1831, where the Kerby Mills now stand. In 1832, a
brewery, the first in the county as well as the first in the town, was built by
William Spencer, at a cost of 88,000 ; it occupied the present site of WycliflTe
Hall, and continued in active operation over twenty years. In 1840, the Grand
River Navigation Company constructed the canal, as will be seen elsewhere.
Gas was introduced in 1854, and water-works in 1870. The first large hotel
in the city was built in 1846, and was kept by Edward J. Montgomery. It was
a brick building, four stories high, eighty or ninety feet wide by sixty feet deep,
and stood on the comer of Colbome and Peel Streets. In 1848, the city was
264 HISTORY OF BRAKT CODMTT.
visited by the cholera, which carried off larpe nuiubers of victims, and was a
source of great terror to the survivors. In 1855, Hugh and Thomas Spencer
erected the West Brantford Brewery in the west corporation limits. It is now
occupied by the Brantford Malting and' Brewing Company. The original
buildings and ground cost about Slo.OOO, It was jointly operated by the
builders until 1867, when the first named retired.
Cmr Buildings.
The rapidly increasing population of the Town of Brantford, and the import-
ance it was fast attaining to amoug Canadian towns, laid many forcible claims
before the people's civic representatives, whose duties, to be faithfully dis-
charged, were of no small consequence during the junior days of the chief town
of the County of Brant In 1849 the Town Council took into consideration
the propriety of having a Town Hall and Market erected in the centre of the
Market Square, which is a portion of the land gifted to the town by the Six
Nation Indians. Accordingly, plans drawn up by John Turner, architect, were
accepted, and the contract, let to the same gentleman for the immediate con-
struction of the necessai-y buildings, which were completed in 1850. The Town
Council then moved into them from their old quarters on the north-west comer
of Dalhousie and Market Streets, on the 7th October of that year. Old land-
marks on the Market Square, such as the primitive school house and the fire
engine shed, at once rapidly vanished from the scene. The ancient cracked bell,
that had, from its elevated position on the .summit of the old qiuisi fire-hall, in
years past been wont to summon the active firemen to their duties, and in
more measured notes to toll the knell proclaiming the sad tidings of one more
having "joined the great majority," was about this time exchanged for a larger
and louder souudiug one, which was placed in the cupola of the new Town
Buildings. Tlie first bell was paid for by voluntary subscriptions in 1837. The
first bell-ringer of all in Brantford was a man known as " Old Williams," who
was succeeded by his son William, on 24th January, 1859. The salary accruing
to this office was $80 per annum. This sum was for a long time made up by
subscriptions in the town ; and it is related of one worthy and wealthy citizen,
Mr. A, Huntington, that he declined to subscribe unless the bell should cease to
be toUed on occasions of funerals, as he " did not care to be reminded of his
latter end." In October, 1852, a town clock with brass wheels was purchased
through a Mr. Moore, from -Van Riper, for S275, and placed in the cupola,
presenting a zinc dial, four feet in iliameter; to each of the four cardinal points
of the compass. In 1859, the office of " clock- winder " was created, with an
inivimp nt.tjii^hed of $30 per annum, and L Recht received the first appointment,
th a view of keeping the somewhat eccentric horologue in the
litude, a virtue that it has been sadly deficient in tor several years
important alterations were made in these buildings, which are of
ghout, an extensive wing having been added at a cost of some
e total cost, inclusive of permanent improvements and additions,
le neighbourhood cff §14,000. The whole structure contains the
now used for little else than election purposes, the Council Chamber,
LOCAL HISTORY. 265
the offices of the City Clerk, Treasurer, Collector and Police Magistrate, with the
butchers' stalls in the basement. A wooden shed runs from the west entrance
of the basement to the sidewalk on Market Street, alfbrding shelter to the
vendors of dairy and other produce. The first public entertainment that
appears to have been held in the Town Hall was a concert given by Frederick
Beyer, on 10th February, 1851.
"hie Pplice Court and Fire Hall are contained in a brick building on the
north-west comer of Dalhousie and Queen Streets, which was built in 1870
At a cost of about $7,000. Besides these there are in the building two cells for
the temporary coufinemefit of prisoners, and the residence on the upper flat of
the Chief Constable and family. The Police Magistrate sits in the Police Court
whenever any charges are to be heard. James Wilkes, J.P., first filled that
ofQce in 1854, and iu about two years he resigned. From then until 1865, the
date of the appointment of the present Police Magistrate, James Weyms, J.P.,
the duties were performed by the Mayor or other justices of the peace.
Market Squabk
In 1850, et circuTn, the worthy town fathers, ever zealous in the interests of
economy, cast many anxious glances around them, in the hope of discovering
some rich bonanza from which the expenses incidental to the building of the
Town Hall, &c., might be liquidated. In a happy moment they resolved to have
the Market Square surveyed into lots, to be sold or let, from time to time, for
stores or such other purposes. Several town merchants availed themselves of
this opportunity, for buildings soon commenced to " crop up " on one side or
other, and on the north-west comer an old frame tavern made its appearance
under the sheltering wing of a Mr. Dove, who was subsequently succeeded by
a Mr. Sutton. This state of afiairs was doomed, however, to be of but short
duration, for, through the exertions of James Kerby, of the " Kerby House,"
the act of the Council, in either selling or leasing any portion of the Market
Square, was declared illegal, and all the stores and otner buildings that had
been erected there were ordered to be removed, and by 1857 had entirely dis-
appeared. Two markets are held here weekly — on Thursdays and Saturdays,
the latter being an especially busy day, as farmers come in from all quarters
and from considerable distances, with abundance of farm, dairy, and garden
products.
A " Market " Square was also laid out at one time in the East Ward, but
has never been used as such. It is now elegantly fenced in as a parade ground
for the •* Dufierin Bifles," and a spacious drill shed covers a considerable por-
tion of it.
The Victoru Park
Was graded on plans furnished by John Turner, architect, and planted with
trees and shrubbery during the summer of 1861, at the same time receiving
the name it is now known by. A flagstaff was erected in the centre, and the
City Council voted an appropriation of $40.00 for the purpose of suitably
mounting the Russian gun, captured at that most extraordinary of all sieges,
the siege of Sebastopol. This, however, has never been accomplished, as the
266 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
gun lies just as it was received. The Square was laid out on the plan of the
" Union Jack," and having been nicely sodded and enriched with flowers, it
affords a pleasant retreat for the citizens during the snltry summer weather.
The Grand Trunk, Dufferin Rifles, or some other band, performs in the Park
once or twice a week in summer time, unless vetoed by some officious official.
This public Square is part of the land conceded to the Town of Brantford by
the Six Nation Indians at the time the original survey was made by Lewis
Burwell.
Water-Works.
The present system of water-works was the result of a by-law passed by
the City Council on February 7, 1870, in words as follows, to wit: "That this
Council, having approved of the Holly System of Water- Works, but not feeling
at present in a position to incur the expense of erecting said works, deem it
advisable that such works be erected by a company formed for that purpose,
and that this Council is prepared to offer any such company eight per cent,
upon the amount expended for fire purposes, adding $250 for working ex-
penses, providing the Qompany expend not less than $20,000, erect buildings^
pumps, machinery, lay not less than 6,575 feet of four and six-inch pipe and
eighteen hydrants, and furnish water at any fire that would be satisfactory to
this Council ; and that the Committee on Fire, Water and Gas be empowered to
have drafts and specifications got up, also draft of agreement for the inspection
of the said Wat^r- Works Company."
A resolution to the same effect as above, but limiting the amount to be ex-
pended to $18,500, was passed at the sitting of Council on the fourteenth of
the same month.
In view of these acts of the Council, a company was formed in 1870, consist-
ing of I. Cockshutt, President ; T. S. Shenston, Secretary and Treasurer ; Wm.
Buck, H. W. Brethour, and H. B. Leeming, with a capital stock of $25,000,
which has since been increased to $50,000. During the same year buildings
were erected, machinery purchased, and pipe-laying begun. Two rotary pumps^
made by the Waterous Engine Works Company, were at firat employed
for pumping, but the use of these has since been discontinued, and they are
now only used in cases of fire. The pump in daily use is from the Worthington
Manufactory of New York, and has a pumping capacity of 750,000 gallons per
day of twenty-four hours.
The amount paid by the city for water privileges for public purposes was, in
1882, eight per cent, on $36,296.52, and $500 for running expenses. This is
probably a fair estimate of the amount annually expended by the city for that
purpose. Pipe-laying for the city, when not for fire purposes, is of course paid
for as though done for an individual, and the city does not pay the per cent, on
all money expended by the company, but only on that expended for fire pur-
poses. Measures are now on foot for enlarging the works, and for furnishing*
water for drinking and table purposes, which has not heretofore been done.
Gas-Works.
As cities, towns and. all communities keep up with the march of civilization »
and assume more dignified proportions from year to year, and are ever watchful
LOCAL fflSTOBT. 267
of the sare and steady advancement and improvements which arts and sciences
introdnce, it is natural that they should seek in every way to elevate them-
selves to the times in which they live. So Brantford, always in the van to
promote the comfort, happiness and general prosperity of her citizens, never
slumbers in their interests.
Previous to 1854 the people of the Town of Brantford had to turn night into day
by the aid of lamp-oil, tallow, and so forth ; but having made great progress in
ail respects, they became determined to supplant the crude material in use for
lighting by something more modem and convenient Accordingly, the matt3r
having been considerably agitated and ventilated, a meeting of the citizens was
called for at Burley's Hotel on the 19th March, 1854, to discuss the matter, and
to solve the problem '* £x fumo dare lucem." The following extract from a
local paper thus dwells on the matter :
" Gas Company. — If the expectations of the projectors of this company can
possibly be realized, Brantford will soon repudiate tallow, sperm, oil, and all
the multifarious and dangerous burning fluids now in use; illuminate her
streets, and light up her shops and private dwellings with gas. Not with that
species of ' laughing gas ' with which effervescent politicians have attempted to
inflate the town during the past twelve months, but with the real Simon pure ;
au article useful, cheap and desirable. The nucleus of a company has already
been formed, and although we think the capital stock has been placed at too low a
fignre, we heartily wish the projectors success in their undertaking, knowing
that if the enterprise be properly managed, it will be a lasting benefit to the
town .... The meeting was largely attended by our busi-
ness men, and those who will most probably be the principal stockholders and
consumers.
" The Mayor was called to the chair, and H. A. Hardy, Esq., requested to act
as Secretary. Several resolutions were adopted, limiting the duration of the
company to fifty years and the capital stock to £6,000, naming Messrs. James
Wilkes, Cleghom, Yardington, VanBrocklin, Strobridge and Cockshutt, Directors
for the ensuing year, and requesting the Town Council to take stock to the
amount of £2,500. Mr. Rubidge was then instructed to draw up the declaration
for the formation of the company required by statute."
Thus the Brantford Gas Company was formed, and having completed the for-
malities prescribed by law, met on 21st March. The following members were
present : Messrs. James Wilkes, H. Yardington, Allen Cleghorn, P. C. Van-
Brocklin, R Strobridge and A. B. Bennett. Mr. James Wilkes was called to
the chair. The officers elected for first year were James Wilkes, President ;
Duncan Cameron, Secretary ; Allen Cleghorn, Treasurer. From the tenders or
propositions respecting the works in contemplation that were handed in, that
of Walker & Fanner was accepted. Committees were appointed to find a
suitable site for the works and to obtain stock, to order pipes and a corporate
seal. Messrs. Cameron and Rubidge were appointed Solicitors for the company.
A call of ten per cent on the subscribed stock was made, and five per cent, col-
lected for immediate purposes.
In the following year, 1855, rules and regulations for burning gas, managing
meters, &c., &c., were drawn up and printed, and a tariff of prices was adjusted
on the foUowing scale, which, in the present more enlightened age, seems some-
what effete in its nature.
268 . HISTOKY OF BRAST COUNTY,
For a " pateot flat jet," burning three feet per hour, from sunset to eight
p.ni., £2 153. Od. per annum.
For the same, from sunset to midnight, £6 Os. Od. per.anonQi.
The time between eight p.m. and midnight was adjusted on an average scale
from above figures.
For a " bat-wing " jet burning five feet per hour, from sunset to eiglit p.ni„
X4 5s. Od, per snuum.
For the same, from sunset to midnight, £10 Os. Od. per annum, and a charge
of eighteen pence additional was charged to parties using gas on Sundays.
These prices were subject to a discount of twenty per cent, if paid on or
before the 14th of each December, March, June and September. j he use of
meters was charged at from a two-light one, 23. 6d. per quarter, to a thirty-
light one, lOs. per quarter. The above system was from time to time modified
till it assumed its present rational process. Compare the price of gas in Brant-
ford at the present day — two dollars per thousand feet, subject to a discount —
with what it was but a few years ago !
The works were erected on Lots 3 and 4, on the south side of Northumber-
land Street, and the process of laying the pipes was immediately commenced.
At the end of 1835, tlie amount of capital stock was increased to nearly £2,000
more, each share beine £5. In 1856, a meter of the capacity of from 400 to
500 feet per hour, and fifty consumers' meters were obtained. In 1857 the
company had to face considerable difficulties, as the cost of the works had
exceeded the amount of stock sold by 310,000, and a further extension of pipes
in the city became indispensable. Not having means of either liquidating
their indebtedness or extending the pipes, they applied to the Town Council
for a sufficient sum to place them on an efficient footing in all respects. In
reply to this a mortgage was drawn up, amounting to £3,500 stg., on the whole
real estate, works, revenue, rates and future calls on the shareholders of the
Gas Co., to secure the Town Council for a loan of railway bonds of the BuSalo,
Brantford and Goderich R R. (afterwards called the BulTalo and Lake Huron
R R.) This set the Gas Co. well on their feet again, so that by 1859 the posi-
tion of affairs had greatly improved. In 1867 the works were rented to \Vm.
Elliott, of Brantfora, for a period of ten years, at $1,640 per annum. In 1874
the Town Council issued preferential stock in the Qas Co., bearing eight per
cent, interest, for 823,000, providing the Qas Co. supply the streets with gas
for ten years at 820.00 per annum. Of this preferential stock the town
accepted SS.OOO in full of its claim of $13,000 under a certain mortgage and
for laying its gas mains, the balance being applied in placing the works in a
' ' repair ; and sadly they needed it. In 1877 the ordinary capital
J the sum of $40,000, at which time Messrs. Alex. Finkle, F. H.
n Fletcher became the lessees, Mr. Date shortly after retiring ;
w stands A. Finkle and Co.
fa' office having been burnt down in 1871 and the books
rticle is unable to supply information in regard tovaluation of
antity of pipe required to supply the town ; but we find that on
Mr. Allen Clegliorn was authorized to obtain fifty tons 2-inch
ins 3-inch cast pipe, one thousand two hundred feet 1-inch
ne thousand two hundred feet |-inch wrought pipe, and one
1 wrought pipe.
LOCAL HISTORY. 269
James Wilkes was President of the company three years, John Taylor, one, A.
B. Bennett, three, G. C. Eeachie, ten, Wm. Watt, two, I. Cockshutt, ten. Mr.
Sheriff Smith has been Secretary an^ Treasurer for several years.
By way of comparison we give a few statistics showing the working of the
company. The twentieth annual report showed amount of capital stock,
S32, 000 ; amount of capital stock paid up, $20,640 ; amount of liabilities,
$15,019.08. On the preferential stock being issued in 1874, the report
showed amount of capital stock, $55,000 ; amount of capital stock paid up,
$20,640 ; amount of liabilities, $8,620. On 31st December, 1882, the report
showed amount of ordinary stock authorized, $40,000 ; amount of preference
stock authorized, $23,000; amount of ordinary stock paid up, $37,740; amount
of preference stock paid up, $23,000. In 1877 the gross production of gas
averaged per annum 7,000.000 cubic feet, and at present, 9,000,000 cubic
feet.
In 1854, Mr. James Kerby lighted up the " Kerby House " with coal gas as
a private enterprise, and Mr. Ignatius Cockshutt s stores were supplied irom the
same source, which lasted for a year or two. These amateur gas-works were
operated at the rear of the yard to the south of the Kerby House, but in an
evil hour the apparatus, like some of the neighbours, unceremoniously " busted."
Fire Department.
Before the organization of the first fire company the town was without any
protection against fires, and entirely at the mercy of the flames. When an
alarm was sounded the citizens turned out en -moa^e, and battled with the
raging element in any way suggested to them. One instance is told of a fire
that occurred in 1835 during the cold weather, and as water was not at hand
the people formed themselves into a brigade and snowballed the fire until it
was extinguished. Of course this method was only available when snow was
on the ground, and was not a very satisfactory way to proceed even then.
Usually a line of meu was formed from the burning building to the nearest
water supply, and buckets of water were passed along to the man standing
nearest the building, who threw it on the fire.
Not later than 1840 the first fire company was organized. It was a volun-
teer company composed of about forty or fifty members, and was known as
the " Goose Neck Company," the name being taken from the apparatus they
used at fires. This curious piece of mechanism consisted of a box and set of
brakes ; the water was carried by the bucketful and poured into the box, from
which it was ejected by means of the brakes. No hose was used on this
engine, the man operating it standing on top and holding the nozzle. The
direction of the stream could only be changed by shifting the position of the
engine. This machine ceased to be used about 1850. The hall or engine house
at that time was a frame shanty on the south-east comer of Market Square.
It was surmounted by a small bell, which was used on occasion of fires, and
also tolled for funerals. The bell-ringer was one Williams, known as ^'Old
Williams,"^ who received 9S0 per annum for his services. All these means
of defence were purchased by subscription, and largely by the firemen them-
selves, who exhausted every means in their power to pay the bell-ringer and
270 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
to keep their house and apparatus in order. They lined themselves for the
sli<;htest or for no misdemeanour, and when fines failed to produce the necessary
income, they assessed themselves for the deficit Among the members of this
first fire company we are only enabled to name James Woodyatt, Ignatius
Cockshutt, Robert Sproule and Squire Weyms.
The company continued until after the incorporation of the town, when an
engine called the "Rescue" was purchased at Boston, and anotl^er company, com-
posed of thirty or forty members (some from the old company), was tormed,
and named ''The Rescue Company." This company was reorgani2ed in 1867,
and continued in active operation until the establishment of the City Water-
works.
The Victoria Hook and Ladder Company was organized soon after the
arrival of the "Rescue" engine, and these two companies for some time constituted
the fire department of the town. The fire appliances were kept in the lower
part of what is now the Market House, which continued to be Fireman's Hall
until about 1862, when a lot was purchased, and the present engine house
built.
In December, 1852, the Town Council ordained that the alarms for fire
should be rung as follows : For North Ward five strokes, for filing's Ward four
strokes, for Queen's Ward three strokes, for Brant Ward two strokes, and for
East Ward a constant ringing was to be kept up. At the same time an appro-
priation of £105 was made to provide working clothes for the fire " laddies."
In 1853 there were thirty-nine members of the Hook and Ladder Company,
forty-one members of the Rescue Company, and twelve members of the Hose
Company. In 1853 the Exchange Company was organized as a hook and
ladder company, but they subsequently obtained the use of the Exchange
engine, which was owned by I. Cockshutt, Esq., and formed themselves into
an engine company.
On Monday, December 28th, 1857, a meeting of all the firemen was held
and the Brantford Fire Brigade organized. In April, 1858, an appropriation
was made by the Town Council, and uniforms provided for the members of the
brigade.
On March 12th, 1860, " the special committee (of the Town Council) to
whom was referred th^ petition of I. Cockshutt and one hundred and thirteen
others, respecting aid in the establishment of an independent fire company,
reported in favour of granting S500 to said company." The report of the com-
mittee was adopted, and the '* Washington" enfi;ine purchased for the Washing-
ton Independent Fire Engine Companv. This company continued in active
operation, and rendered the city vahiable aid until the introduction of water-
works, when all the engines disappeared.
In 1849 the Council gave permission to I. Cockshutt and Duncan McKay to
dig a well and put in a pump on the north side of Colbome Street for protection
against fire. In August, 1861, the Council provided for the building of six
fire cisterns twelve feet in diameter, not to contain less than a depth of ten
feet of water. They were located as follows : On the comer of Wellington and
Queen Streets, comer of Sherman and Market, comer Cedar and Nelson, comer
Palace and Crown, comer Mill and Colbome, and on Dalhousie Street, near the
Congregational Church.
LOCAL HISTORY. 271
About this time the Council paid a prize of five dollars to the company
throwing the first water at a time of fire. This was the cause of a ^eat deal
of warm feeling among the men, and several companies disbanded. From the
reports of the papers of that day, it would seem that the town was for a con-
siderable space oi time entirely without a company. The warmest feelings of
antagonism existed, particularly between the Exchange and Washington Com-
panies, and often it was only by the interference of outside parties that an
open rupture was averted.
These things have now all passed away, and in the regular march of improve-
ment engines and men to man them are no longer needed in the community.
Since the advent of the water- works the fire department of the city has
consisted of one hose company and one hook and ladder company, each com-
prised of about thirty-five men. The chief of the department receives a small
remuneration for his services, and each company receives a smalLsum annually
from the exchequer of the city.
Bridges.
The first bridge over the Grand Biver at Brantford appears to have been
built in the year 1812, at a point below the present "Lome" bridge, but a
premature and unexpected doom awaited it, as immediately after the first team
had crossed, a stidden crash announced its entire collapse. Other bridges
succeeded it at about the same point, only to be swept awav by the spring
floods that have for many seasons caused great damage to both public and
private propertv. In 1854 a new " free " bridge was constructed, cnissing the
river near the 6ilkison estate, and this was also washed away by piecemeal,
never to be rebuilt. A covered " toll " bridge, which was erected some time
previous to 1841, at the foot of Colborne Street, being burdened with the heavy
toll levied* on the 1st July, 1854, took a suicidal plunge into the river, and
was enlisted among the things that were. A foot-bridge took its place in
1856, on the same site, where there was also a ferry. The '' iron bridge " was
next erected, in 1857, by Jordan & Acret, contractors, only to be swept away
by the memorable flood of September 14th, 1878. On tiiis occasion an old
retired merchant, named Tyrell, lost his life. He was carried away with the
bridge beyond all rescue. The Mayor, Eobert Henry, and the City Council-
lors took immediate steps to have the bridge replaced. A temporary one. Just
below the scene of the wreck, was made available for trattic within eight oavs
from the date of the disaster. Tenders were invited for the construction of a
new bridge on the site of the old one, and the contract for the mason-work
was awarded to Hickey & Clarke, Buffalo, Clarke, Beeves & Co., of the Phoenix
Works, Philadelphia, becoming contractors for the superstructure, and Samuel
Reefer was appointed engineer. The abutments are built of the finest cut
grey limestone from the quarries at Queenston and Beamsville, Ontario, laid
in the best Akron cement. These were completed sufficiently for the super-
structure on the 22nd of January, 1879, having been commenced on the 24th
of October, 1878. The iron truss was at once laid on, and the entire bridge
was completed on the 6th of February, 1879, and .opened for traffic about the
8th of March following. The superstructure is of wrought iron, and built on
the triangular system, known as the '* double-cancelled Whipple truss." The
272 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
bridge is 254 feet long, and the bottom cords are 15 feet above the water
level. The width, from outside to outside of the sidewalks, is 34 feet ; the
truss is 32 feet iu height, and the structure will bear with perfect safety 2,100
pounds for every lineal foot, besides its own weight. The bridge roadway is
covered with the " Nicholson " block pavement, and the entire cost was, in
round numbers, $40,000. An inscription on white marble, which is imbedded
in the pedestal at the west end of the bridge, perpetuates the following :
LORNE BRIDGE,
Erected, 1879.
Robert Henry, Mayor; Samuel Keeper, Engineer;
John Hickler, Contractor.
A bridge further up the river, at Holmedale, was carried away on the 17th
of February, 1857, was rebuilt, and finally followed its predecessor in March,
1861. ' .
Hospitals.
The first hospital in Brantford is said to have been iu a frame building on
the south-west comer of Market and Darling Streets, where Ivey's fruit store
now stands. It was for the use of the 73rd Regiment in 1837-38. Small-
pox and other epidemics too [frequently visited this fair city, and necessitated
at times the erection of temporary hospitals or pest-houses. In August, 1854,
the first Board of Health for Brantford was appointed, under a proclamation
of the Grovenior-General. In 1866, the dwelling house known as the old
Wilkes property, immediately east of the Kerby House, was converted into a
hospital for the troops that were stationed at Brantford during that and
following years. There is now a small-pox hospital at the Mount Hope Ceme-
tery, placed there a year or two ago, and the locality wisely selected, with a
conscientious consideration for the feelings of such patients as might recover,
and a view to economy in cases where recovery is past man's skill.
Cemeteries. •
Previous to the opening of what is now known as the " Old Cemetery," there
were burial grounds in connection with and adjoining Grace Church on Albion
Street,and the first Presbyterian Church on George Street One also existed where
the Central School now stands on George Street A tract of land at the head
of West Street was, in 1831 or '32, obtained from the Six Nation Indians for
little or nothing during the Administration of Sir John Colborne, for the purpose
of providing a settlement at that period for a number of immigrants from Kew
England, who were allowed about five acres for each family. Some time later
a good many of these immigrants left for the Township of Onondaga, where
they formed what has since been known as the New England Settlement
About the year 1847 it appears to have been converted into a public cemeieiy,
and in that year it was partly fenced in by John Tunstead, and surveyed into
%.(ar73^JS^-tJ..^
N
T»*. Hfc« V««
PUbiJC UBKARY
xirttm. ' p^"*
LOCAL HISTORT. 275
plots by the Town Surveyor, many of which plots were sold by auction on 20th
October, 1850. Additional land was obtained from the Commissioner of Indian
Lands, and the whole has been fenced in, thoroughly drained, handsomely laid
out, and profusely supplied with trees, shrubs and flowers.
The new cemetery ground, called "Mount Hope," also situated on West
Street but considerably further west, was bought from J. D. Clement in 1873.
Very few interments have so far been made in this cemetery. A small-pox
hospital or pest-house has been erected there. The Boman Catholic cemetery is
located on the north side of a road leading into the St Greorge road, about one
mile north of the city.
Post Office.
From the time that Brantford was erected into a " post village," which is by
some said to be about sixty years ago, the post office has been kept in a multi-
tude of places in the town ; so many, in fact, that it would be no easy task to
name them all accurately. In 1841, and for some years later, it stood on the
hill on the north side of Colborne Street and a little west of King Street. In
1850 it was in a store on Colborne Street, a few doors west of a tavern that
stood where Blackader*s drug store is at present. Some time later it was moved
to the south-west corner of Market and Dalhousie Streets ; thence to the north-
east corner of the same streets. In 1856 it was conveyed to the Greorge Straet
end of the Kerby block, from which place a fire drove it out in 1869. It then
sojourned for six months in the Cockshutt block till it found a resting place
for ten years in the Bainsford block, on the south-east comer of George and
Dalhousie Streets. Finally, in 1880, it was moved into its present quarters in
the Government buildings. The first po^ttnfetefT, aiid until after 1841, was
William Bichardson, and one Walked filled^ the portion till about 1848, when
James Muirhead acted temporarily till the end of 1850. J. D. Clement was then
appointed to the office, which he held till the atip'^btment of his son, A. D.
Clement, the present postmaster, in 1862. Mr. Clement has as assistants Chas.
H. Clement, F. J. Grennie, W. W. Buckwell, J. C. Montgomery, W. F. \V.
Tisdale and K Tranmer.
Post Office, Customs and Inland Revenue Building.
This was erected on the north-east comer of George and Dalhousie Streets
in 1850, at a cost to the Dominion of thirty-five thousand dollars, including
fitting up. It is a handsome edifice of hnck, surmounted by a light and elegant
mansard roof. A. Brown, of Hamilton, was the contractor for the mason work,
and Henry & Graham, of Brantford, were contractors for the balance. The
ground floor, which is, in outside measurement, 61x51 feet, is occupied by the
Post Office, with an entrance on George Street, and on the up-stairs flat are the
offices of the Customs and Inland Bevenue Departments, having an entrance on
Dalhousie Street
Public Hai.ta
For a long time, until the erection of the Town Hall, exhibitions coming to
Brantford and requiring a hall were allowed to astonish and delight the natives
17
276 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
in the little old school house that stood on the Market Square, about the -spot
where the City Hall now stands. In 1837-38 a theatre was improvised by the
officers and soldiers of the 73rd Regiment of regulars, a portion of which was
stationed at Brantford during the " rebellion " period. This place of amuse-
ment was in the up-stairs part of a frame building that stood where the Com-
mercial Hotel bam now is. Besides the Town Hall and Wycliffe Hall (mention
of which is m»de elsewhere), there were the ** Kerby House" Hall, licensed
March 12th, 1855 ; Ker's Hall (now Stratford's Opera House), built in 1866 by
James Ker, at a cost of 315,000 ; and the "Brant House " Concert Room, aU
from time to time employed for entertainments of one kind or another. The
Kerby Hall was fitted with a stage, drop-curtain, and scenery by J. C. Palmer,
but was closed up and converted into bedrooms on the opening of Stratford's
Opera House in 1881.
This last-named place of entertainment was opened in the latter part of
October, 1881, having been superbly fitted up by Mr. Joseph Stratford at an
immense outlay. The building, which was erected in 1866, was bought by Mr.
Stratford, and converted from a mere hall into one of the most elegant, best
furnished, most comfortable, safe opera houses in the Dominion, and, in most
respects, is excelled by few even in the United States. The front abuts on
Colbome Street, and is illuminated on " open nights " by calcium lights. The
rear is on Market Lane, and is provided with a baggage-room on the basement
and another on a line with the stage, and a huist for lifting baggage, scenery,
&c., to the dressing-rooms and stage. The staircases are wide, one leading to
the main auditorium, manager's office and ladies' cloak room, the other to the
balcony seats, general gallery, &c. The walls are adorned with Parian casts,
busts, &c., and the ceiling and walls are elegantly decorated and frescoed, the
work having been executed by Mr. D. Flood, of Rochester, New York. The
auditorium, which is supplied with 600 iron opera chairs, besides ordinary
seats in the gallery, is divided into orchestra, eight private boxes, parquette,
parquette circle and dress circle, and the whole commands a perfect view of
the stage, which is replete with all necessary appointments. The scenery and
drop-curtain, which are very handsome and extravagant — ^the latter presenting a
view of the Golden Horn and Constantinople — were painted by Mr. Leon
Lampert, of Rochester, New York. The dressing-rooms are reached by a stair-
way at the rear of the main entrance, and are very comfortably furnished ; and
the water attachments and sprinklers, both on the stage and in the house, for
use in case of fire, are second to none for completeness and simplicity. The
management of this Opera House is excellent, everything being done with mili-
tary precision. The house police and attaches are all in regular uniform, and
everything is under the immediate management of the proprietor.
Hotels and Taverns.
It is not in the province of the treatment of this subject to establish a diiec*
tory of all the hotels or taverns that have existed or do now exist in Brant-
ford, but rather to deal briefly with those having some history, or that can
assert some claim to notice on the ground of comparative antiquity.
LOCAli HISTORYi 277
Some of the settlers remember a tavern that stood, in 1821, on the old D.
Gilkinsod property, on the west side of the river, kept by one Holly, and there
were in those days but a very few shanties to bear it company. A frame
tavern was put up shortly anterior to 1838, on the north-west corner of Col-
borne and Market Streets, and known at one time as the British American.
This hotel was kept in rotation by Pearson, W. R Irish, J. D. Clement, Jona-
than Hale, and l&stly by Burley, during whose occupancy it was burnt down,
in 1851 or '52. Burley then moved into the Pepper House. In 1837 a very
old frame tavern stood on the south side of Colborne Street, where the
Bobinson Hall now stands, but this was burnt down and rebuilt of brick.
Bradley's frame tavern was built previous to 1837, on the south aide of Col-
borne Street, on the spot where Hunt and Benett's livery stable now is. It
also was burnt down circum 1858, in which vear William Buck established a
foundry on the same site, and in 1871 it became a livery stable. John Love-
joy kept a tavern on the corner of King and Colborne Streets, some time before
the town was laid out. Another tavern, called the Brant Hotel, stood many years
ago where App's feed store is, on the south side of Colborne Street. It was
kept by J. D. Clement from 1841 till 1844. " Joe " James subsequently became
proprietor, until it was destroyed by fire in 1853 ; James then moved to the
opposite side of the street, into a building put up by A. Huntington as three
grocery storea This hotel is now known as the Bingham House. James was
followed successively by Havill, Kennedy, Fraser, Fogg, Thomas Brooke (1859),
Job Bingham (1865), Early, and finally by Job Bingham again. In 1841, two
taverns announced " accommodation for man and beast" in West Brantf ord,
kept about that year, one by Montrass and the otiier by Wilson. These two
taverns are still in existence. The East Ward also boasted of two, one by K J.
Montgomery. In July, 1859, the well known genial Englishman and excellent
host, the late George Fleming, opened a hotel in the large brick building on
the comer of Dalhousie and King Streets, at one time occupied by Allen Cleg-
horn as a wholesale hardware store, now by Joseph Stratford as a wholesale
drug store. This was called the " Brant House," and was closed up as a hotel
in 1871. The " Kerby House," which is of brick, was built by James Kerby,
and opened on the 28th August, 1854, with Pope as lessee. At that time it
was the largest hotel in Upper Canada, the Clifton House at Niagara excepted.
On May 2nd, 1856, J. R Coulson assumed the management, and in consequence
of bad bnsiness, owing to the unprecedented stagnation of commerce, in 1857-
58, the hotel was closed up, and in 1865 was offered for sale by the Trust and
Loan Company without finding ^ purchaser. In 1866 the Fenian troubles
made a necessary demand on the mother country for troops, and several regi-
ments of regulars were sent out to Canada, of which there was stationed in
Brantf ord, early in October of that year, the 2nd Battalion Fusilier Guards,
which was relieved in the following July by the 17th Regiment, and that
again by the 69th, which left in May, 1868. The Kerby House being vacant,
was at once secured for the troops and converted into barracka In 1872, J.
G. Palmer, the present proprietor, and one of the most popular and enterprising
hotel-keepers in the Dominican, bought the Kerby House, and at once set to
work to refit and improve it in all respects, and furnish it with' every modern
878
HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
convenience. This he has accomplished at an outlay, irrespective of purchase
money, of between thirty and forty thousand dollars. The " Pepper House '*
was built on the north side of Dalhousie Street, opposite the Town Hall, in
1861. It took the place of a hotel which was burnt down in 1859, while Job
Tripp carried it on. In 1869 J. C. Palmer purchased the Peeper House, when
it became known as the " Commemal." In 1872 Mr. Palmer sold out and Mr.
H. T. Westbrook became proprietor. It has since had considerable additions
and improvements made to it. Other hotels or taverns no doubt may be
entitled to notice, but are without sufficient data to establish their history.
LOCAL HISTOBT. 279
CHAPTER II.
Grand River Navigation Co. — Industries. — Customs and
Revenue. — Banking Companies. — Board of Trade.
Grand River Navigation Co.
WheD, in the year 1818, that grand scheme for coDnecting the waters of Lakes
Erie and Ontario, and which is known as the Welland Canal, began to assume
practical form, mnch trouble was encountered in excavating and constructing an
entrance lock from Lake Erie to the main channel of the canal. This difficulty
was caused by the loose and drifting nature of the sandy formation of the lake
margin, and resulted in the caving in and filling up of the work, as well as the
formation of a '^ bar " across the approaches to the inlet or upper end of the
water way.
To overcome this trouble a dam was constructed across Grand Biver, and
the waters thereof raised to a sufficient height to supply a lateral feeder for the
main canaL This feeder was also arranged so that shipping could pass through
it ma Port Maitland into the canal proper. The building of this dam appears
to have opened the eyes of those who were interested in the progress of the
inland country along the coast of Grand River, and a company was formed for
the purpose of improving the stream by a succession of levels, thus converting
the natural water-course into a system of "slack water" navigation which
would admit of the passage of boats of light draught as far up the stream as its
levels were carried.
The body corporate was known as the Grand Biver Navigation Company, and
appears to have been composed of the following persons as shareholders :
Geo. Waahington Whitehead, 20 shares ; Absalom Shade, 30 shares ; John A.
Wflkes, 20 shares; Wm. Bichardson, 20 shares; Wm. Muirhead, 10 shares;
Thomas Butler, 2 shares ; Allen N. Macnab, 120 shares ; Thomas M. Jones,
20 shares ; Hon. Wm. Allen, 10 shares ; G. A. Clarke, 20 shares ; Lewis Bur-
well, 8 shares ; A. Huntington, 12 shares ; Beuben Leonard, 2 shares ; Henry
Liston, 1 share ; Florentine Mayhills, 2 shares ; James Gilpin, 12 shares ;
, Jedediah Jackson, 20 shares ; Barton Farr, 4 shares ; David Thompson, 2,000
shares ; Andrew Thompson, 24 shares ; Benjamin Canty, 50 shares ; Thomas
Merritt, Jr., 100 shares ; William Fish, 25 shares ; S. K Squires, 20 shares ;
James Black, 10 shares ; Wm. Ford, 20 shares ; Wm. Hamilton Merritt, 2,000
shares ; Samuel Street, 20 shares ; Seth Hurd, 4 shares ; Andrew A. Benjamin,
2 shares ; Marcus Blair, 20 shares ; Jacob Turner, 25 shares ; Samuel H Fams-
worth, 100 shares ; C. Alexander Foster,|8 shares ; Nathan Gage, 5 shares ;
Andrew Sharp, 4 shares ; Hezekiah Davis, 20 shares ; Six Nation Indians, 1,760
280 mSTOBY OF BBANT COUNTY.
shares ; Jos. Montague, 4 shares ; Henry Tates, 200 shares ; Wm. K Ewing, 16
shares ; W. C. Chase, 50 shares ; Robt. K Bums, 100 shares ; Gea Rykert, 20
shares ; Jas. Little, 80 shares ; Capt. A. Drew, 100 shares ; Richard Miaxtin, 20
shares ; Hon. Peter Bobinson, 25 shares ; Att'y-General Lamson, 25 shares ; A.
Brown, 10 shares ; J. H. McKenzie, 50 shares ; John P. Mathews, 2 shares ;
Francis Webster, 20 shares ; James Matthew Whyte, 160 shares ; Win. Brooks
King, 135 shares ; Sarah B. Parton, 25 shares ; Leslie Battersby, 15 shares ;
Thomas Blakney, 10 shares ; Calvin Martin, 4 shares ; George Eafer, 20 shanss ;
M. Mackenzie, 50 shares.
Upon completion of the work, it was found that the upper level would not
affoid depth of water sufficient for the passage of boats nearer than about two
and three-quarter miles from Brantford. This produced a state of things which
was anything but favourable to the new town, and immediate efforts were made
to remedy the situation. A preliminary survey established the practicability
of opening a cut-off from Brantford to the slack water below the town ; accord-
ingly the contract was awarded to John A. Wilkes, £sq., and in due time the
work was completed. This arrangement enabled the business men of Brantford
to ship and receive produce and goods at their own warehouses, without haul-
ing or breaking cargo, and undoubtedly contributed as much towards laying
the foundation of financial prosperity here as any other one thing in the record
of local events.
For several years the canal was the only available avenue through which the
produce of the country round about Brantford could reach an outside market ;
and besides its value as a means of inter-communication, it contributed directly
to the establishment of mills and factories along its line. There were several
dams on the river between Brantford and the lake, and at many of these town
lots were laid off and centres of trade opened, so that the improvement of the
whole Grand River Valley was an immediate result
The reader will bear in mind that at that early period railroads were not
developed to the ex lent, to which they have latterly attained ; also that the
subject of '' Internal Improvements," which meant canals and highways, was
popular in all parts of America as a means of opening up the country. While
the work was of material benefit to the country through which it passed, it was
an unprofitable investment for the stockholders.
The company soon got into difficulties, and borrowed money to meet claims and
cany on the works. They became deeper involved every year, and at last
appealed to the Town of Brantford for assistance. The directors alleged that a
loan of £40,000 would enable them not only to meet pressing exigencies, but
would also enable them to so improve the work as to make it highly remunera^
tive to the stockholders, and at the same time meet the annual interest acciuing
on the loans, and provide for the gradual extinction of the debt, by establishing
a sinking fund. The Town of Brantford felt a deep interest in the work, and
believing that the improvement of the navigation would add to the material
prosperity of the town, agreed to issue debentures to the amount of £40,000
for the benefit of the Navigation Company, taking a first mortgage on all the
property of the company, which deposited a large portion of the bonds in one
of the banks as coUatei'al security for bank accommodation. The money
received on the debentures sold was expended, but the work was not oorres-
LOCAL HISTORY. 281
pondingly improved, nor the company relieved from its embarrassments. The
company failing to meet the interest falling due on the debentures, as a con<*
sequence the coupons were taken up by the town, which stood pledged not only
for the interest but for the principal when it became due, provided the Navi-
gation Company failed to meet those demands.
The afTairs of the company having become hopelessly embarrassed, the cor-
poration, with the consent of the directors, paid the claim of the bank, and thus
trained possession of what remained of the debentures that had been deposited
as security. This left debentures to the amount of £23,500 outstanding, and as
the Navigation Company still i-efused to pay the interest on them, the town
foreclosed the mortgage, and thus partially secured itself by taking possession
of the works and securing the proceeds.
When, in June, 1861, the town became the possessor of the works, they
were much out of repair, and the amount of tolls small ; in fact, the principal
sonrce of revenue was from the water rents ; the railroads which were in opera-
tion across the county had absorbed and diverted the original traffic from its
course, and the " navigation" became worthless except for hydraulic purposes.
The town soon found that the only way to utilize the several advantages which
naturally came from suclf a work, was to turn it to good account as available
water power; so after expending both money and attention upon the various
details of repairs and renewals, the work was transferred to private hands, and
is now used for local water power.
Industkies.
The Farm and Dairy Utensil Manufaciwrvtvg d/m/pany was or^nized in
1881, with a capital stock of $50,000. A charter was obtained on the 27th of
July of the same year by M. Whiting, Wm. J. Scarfe, H. M. Wilson, A. D.
Cable, M. F. Hale, and Robert Smyth. The officers of the company are : M.
Whiting, President ; H. M. Wilson, Vice-President ; M. F. Hale, Secretary ; R
C. Smyth, Treasurer. The business of which this is an outgrowth was
established in the beginning of 1881 by M. Whiting, who had aU his goods
manufactured to order. Early in 1882 he purchased the present location of the
company's works on Duke and Waterloo Streets, which was then known as
Jones* Foundry, and here built the commodious factories which are known as
above. The main building is 140 feet by 50 feet, two stories high ; the
foundry 60 by 25 ; the blacksmith shop 24 by 50 ; and the dry kiln 18 by 36.
The latter, which is used for seasoning and drying lumber, is of an improved
pattern, and one of a very few in Canada. The products of this factory are :
The Improved Wide-Awake Separator ; Bickford's Combined Force, Lift, Tank
and Suction Pump; the Weller Independent Spring-tooth Cultivator, with broad-
cast seeder attached ; and the Monarch Fanning Mill. They employ about
twenty men. A twenty-five horse-power engine is used for driving the
machinery.
" A. Harris, Son & Co.^ Manufadxirers of Improved Harvesting Machinery.
— ^This great industrial establishment was founded about the year 1860, at the
Town of Beamsville, Ontario, by Alanson Harris, Esq. In 1871 Mr. Harris
removed his business to Brantford, where he formed a partnership with Messrs.
282 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
J. Harris and J. K. OsborBe, under the style and title of A« Harris, Son & Ca
This firm was incorporated in 1881 under the laws of the Dominion of Canada,
since which time it has been known as A. Harris, Sun & Co. (limited). The
energies of this corporation are devoted entirely to the production of harvesting
machinery, of the class known as reapers and mowers, self-binders, &c. These
are all manufactured under patents owned by the firm. The shops on Colbome
Street that were erected in 1871 soon became insufficient for the business for
which they were built, and in 1877 the capacity was doubled by an ample
extension ; but these enlarged facilities soon becfune cramped again, so that it
became necessary to build additional shops. These were erected in 1882, on
the grounds south of the old canal, on what are locally known as Cockshutt's
Flats. Here is the new blacksmith shop, a building of 150 by 50 feet, fitted
up with all the modern appliances that genius could invent for the prosecution
of this branch of industry. A short distance further south is the new moulding
shop, a building of 200 by 60 feet. On the west end is placed the cupola with
a capacity of melting ten tons at one time, and on the other end is a large tank
ten feet in diameter, always kept filled with water, and connected with pipes
throughout the whole building. In the spring the company intend erecting a
large building of 400 feet frontage, south of the new sBops, to meet the increas-
ing demand of their trade. No less than ten general agents are constantly on
the road, exclusive of the Manitoba branch. The officers of the company are :
J. Harris, President and Superintendent ; J. K. Osborne, Vice-President ; A.
Harris, Secy.-Treas. ; F. Grobb, Mechanical Superintendent Manitoba branch —
L. M. Jones, Manager ; J. H. Housser, Sec.-Treas. The product of these works
in the year 1882 was 1,000 mowers, 1,275 reapers, 500 self-binders. For
the year 1883 there will be manufactured 1,750 mowers, 1,750 reapers, and
1,000 self-binders. The annual consumption of leading items of material is as
follows : Pig iron, 1,000 tons ; bar iron, 250 tons ; coal, 250 tons ; binding twine,
250 tons ; binding wire, 50 tons ; malleable iron, 100 tons. The working of
this great amount of material gives steady employment to about one hunSfed
and fifty artisans and labourers, and also keeps in motion an extensive assort-
ment of costly machinery. The power for this establishment is supplied by two
highly improved steam engines of the most modem type ; these are of eighty
and thirty horse power respectively.
J. 0. Wisner, Son A Co. — ^This firm was established in this city in the year
1857. They are now the largest manufacturers of the class of agricultural
implements they turn out to be found in Canada. Although they commenced
upon a small scale, yet, with indomitable perseverance and attention to business,
they soon attained to the high position they now occupy in the manufacturing
world. Seven years ago the premises then occupied by them being too limited,
they built a facto? y at the comer of Wellington and Clarence Streets. The
comer next t<o Wellington is occupied as reception room and offices. The prin-
cipal implements manufactured are one and two horse drills, drill and broad-
cast seeders combined, single broad-cast seeders, spring tooth cultivators, spring
tooth harrows, and sulky rakes, of which they will turn out over 5,000 this
year, and will employ from 100 to 120 hands. Like all establishments of the
kind which are at all progressive, there has been a constant increase of machineiy
and appliances during the last few years. To operate these a steam-engine of
LOCAL HISTORY. 283
thirty-six horse power is used. There is little doubt that all shops which
produce this class of implements in the Dominion of Canada have a bright
fature before them ; as the tendency to use agricultural machinery expands,
there must be a corresponding increase of supply.
BrmUford Brewing and MaUivg Company. — ^This establishment was started
over twenty years ago by H. & T. Spencer. Thomas Spencer was the next
proprietor, and continued the business until the property came into the hands
of Humphrey Davis. In 1876 Greorge White became the owner and manager,
and so continued until the establishment was purchased by Joseph Jackson, the
present proprietor, in 1879. The " plant " is one of the most complete in this
part of Canada, and has a capacity for producing two thousand gallons of ale
and porter, a week. In 1872 a large extension was built, various improvements
have been added from time to time, until it is now in every respect a fii-st class
brewery.
Spring Bank Brewery, — ^This establishment was formerly owned by Wnu
Spencer, afterwards by a Mr. LaflTerty. In 1856 George White, who had been
a practical brewer in the place for several years, began the business on his own
account The weekly product is about sixty barrels of lager beer, that being
the only variety of malt liquor made at this brewery. The weekly consump«
tion of malt is one hundred and forty bushels. In 1863 Mr. White quitted the
brewing business and the building was converted into a tannery, which was
operated by one McCulloch untU about 1874, when it was destroyed by fire. In
1880 Mr. White rebuilt the establishment, and has continued the business of
brewing to the present time. There are five men employed here.
Workman Jk Watt, Brick-makers and Genei^ Dealers in Brick, — Calvin
Houghton opened this yard as long ago as 1833 ; he wan succeeded by Hugh
Workman, who conducted the business until the year 1880, when the present
firm assumed the proprietorship. There are three varieties of brick produced
at this yard, namely : red brick, white brick, and spiral-shaped brick tor wells,
etc. The average number made is one hundred and twenty-five thousand per
week, to accomplish which the services of six men are required. This enter-
prise has added much to the facilities which Brantford possesses for the erection
of good buildings,
BUuker Bros,' Branlford Steam Brick-Yard was established by Edward
Elacker about 1836, near the brick-yard nuw operated by Workman & Watt, on
the Hamilton Road. He was there five or six years, and then removed on
the farm now owned by Mrs. Laycock ^ then changed it to Tutelar Heights,
on the " Landing fioad," or road leading tp Newport He was probably the
first brick manufacturer in the county, coming here from Hamilton. He started
on a small scale at first In 1879, he bought hi» present brick-yard, and earned
on the two yards till 1881, when he retired from business in favour of his two
sons, R R and W. Blacker. The present Brantford steam brick-yard covers
about four acres, is located one mile from the city limits on the . etl side of the
Mount Pleasant Koad, and is probably the largest brick-yard, west of Toronto,
in Ontario. The bricks aro pressed by steam, and this is the only firm that
nianulactores both red and yellow brick. They manufacture from 2,000,000 to
2,500,000 bricks per year, and employ about 26 men and boys, and use from
1,200 to 1,500 cords of wood per year. They have a farm of 30 acres here.
284 HISTORY OF BRANT COUKTY.
and clay is found close to the machines. Most of the brick for the past year
were used in Brantford. They have about S16,000 to $1B,000 invested in busi-
ness, and the weekly pay roll runs from S180 to $200. The junior partner,
William Blacker, has charge of the yard and superintends the manufacture and
sale of the brick. They find a good sale for brick made, use three Townley
Stock Brick Machines, and make from ten to twelve thousand per day apiece.
City BrooTti Factory. — Was started in 1877 by C. Jarvis, Jr. It is situated
on Canal Street, near the Cotton Mill, in Uolmedale. The labour is performed
by hand, and results in a weekly output of seventy-five dozen brooma There
are employed from five to ten hands. Mr Jarvis is also a wholesale dealer in
and importer of French whisk and bass from France and Belgiunt
Brant Canning CoTnpany. — In 1868 Mr. J. R. Shuttleworth commenced the
purchase and sale of fruit and its products as an especial industry ; this busi-
ness soon expanded to such successful compass that an increase of forces became
desirable, and Mr. J. M. Shuttleworth was admitted as a partner with bi&
brother ; this was in 1875. Four years later J. M.. Shuttleworth took up hia
residence in Liverpool, England, in connection with the export and import
business. The canning of fruits and vegetables was undertaken in a small
way in 1879 ; this enterprise also proved remunerative, and an extensive busi-
ness has been developed therefrom. The firm now occupy a large brick boilding^
on the north-west corner of Dalhousie and King Streets, wheie they have
ample facilities for putting up five thousand cans of fruit each day, and give
employment to sixty operatives, many of whom are women. The interest of
Mr. J. M. Shuttleworth was purchased by his brother, George H. Shuttle-
worth, in 1882. The firm are large importers of foreign fruits, fancy groceries,
etc., and are extensively engaged in the handling of native apples, large quan-
tities of which are annually exported to European markets. This establish-
ment is one of the largest and most complete ot its kind in the Dominion.
Brantfoi^d Carriage Works. — This establishment has developed from a modest
beginning made in January, 1866, by two brothere, Thomas and John Hext»
who were both practical workmen. Their first shop was a small building on
the Qorner of Dalhousie and Queen Streets, but in 1870 their business had
increased beyond the capacity of that place, and they erected the fi-ont or main
portion of the present works on Dalhousie Street. In 1877 a two story addi-
tion was made, and in 1881 another extension, three stories in height, was added,
so that there now is an extensive system of shops. This industry gives employ-
ment to twenty-five mechanics, and has facilities for turning out one hundred
carriages and an equal number of sleighs each year. In July of the year 1875,
Mr. Thomas Hext was called to his final rest, and the surviving brother became
the sole proprietor, and so continues to this date. The work manufactured by
Mr. Hext is intended for local use, and is principally disposed of in Central
Ontario, although a respectable percentage is marketed in the North- West, and
some even goes to foreign countries. The establishment consumes a large
amount of material, both domestic and foreign, much of which is imported
directly by the proprietor.
The City Carriage JVorks were founded by Adam Spence in the year 1857.
This event was to a certain degree a matter of necessity, as from the failure
of the firm of Smith & McNaught, Mr. Spence was thrown out of employment
LOCAL HISTORY. 285
as a jonmeyman, and to open up a little place of his own was the only way he
saw toward earning a living. Accordingly, with no capital save his health
and skill, he commenced business in a small shop on the north-west corner of
Colbome and Clarence Streets. This was in the fall of 1857, and just at the
opening of the well-remembered hard winter of 1858. There was little to he
done, and the new shop encountered its full share of worthless customers, so that
when spring came the collectible debts of the younf? citizen were insufficient
to the necessary expenses of an economical living. But time, and a more inti-
mate acquaintance with the people, gave a better class of customers, and the
"wolf* was driven from the door for a time at least Slowly but surely the
attention of a few worthy citizens was drawn towards the efforts of Mr Speuce
in his struggle for a business foothold ; the little shop began to be crowded
with orders, and prosperity seemed to be already assured. On the morning of
June 12th, 1864, the whole establishment was destroyed by fire. As there was
no insurance on the property, Mr. Spence found himself once more with nothing
but perseverance and a good. business character for working capit^. Business,
tools, stock, hope itself almost had been swept away ; but at this juncture came
the encouraging support of ** friends in need/' He was advised to purchase a
site and rebuild at once. One man offered to put up the new shops and wait the
final success ot the enterprise for his pay. Others came forward with proffers
of aid and confidence, and, as a result, the new shops were ready for occupancy
in five weeks from the burning of the original ones. These new shops were
the buildings which now serve as workrooms on the eastern fiank of the estab-
lishment. In 1868-9 Mr. Spence purchased the structure which had been
used for a hospital by the troops while stationed here ; to this he added a large
and commodious front of sufficient capacity to accommodate the various depart-
ments of a finishing shop, repository, offices, etc. All kinds of waggon and
carriage work is turned out here ; much attention is also given to general
jobbing and repairs. There are employed some 18 or 20 mechanics, which force
is equal to the production of 100 buggies and 75 sleighs per year, besides much
other work. The annual number of articles turned out has perhaps never
equalled the above statement, although a fair rating of the capabilities of Mr.
Spence and his facilities seems to indicate these figures. Much of the material
consumed in this establishment is imported directly from foreign producers,
while other amounts are secured through local dealers, thus adding to the general
industry of the city.
Craven Cotton MUl, — ^The • building of the above mill was begun in May,
1880, and the first manufactured goods turned out were shipped in April, 1881.
The mill is 170 feet long by 70 feet wide, and four stories high. It is built of
white brick, with a mansard roof, and makes quite an imposing appearance.
The machinery consists of 10,000 spindles and preparation, and 250 looms. The
goods manufactured are grey domestics, or what are commonly called factory
cottons. The quantity of cotton annually used by the mill is about 2,000 bales
of 500 pounds each. The output is about 62,500 yards per week, or 3,125,000
yards per annum. This establishment was built and operated by Clayton Slater
until May 1, 1882, when it became a joint stock company, with a paid-up
capital of $225,000. Mr. Slater is a large stockholder and general manager of
the work.
2 6 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Cigar Bex and Paper Box Manufa/iory. — ^Founded in 1875 by the present
owner, Walter Fowler, and gives employment to about sixteen hands, ten of
whom are women. There is in nse all necessary modern machinery for the
various details of the business ; this is driven by a steam engine of an improved
type. The products of this shop are used principally in and near Brantford by
the starch, confectionery, cigar and tobacco manufacturers.
A, Fair's Cigar Factory, — ^Ten years ago Mr. Fair was induced to embark in
the business of manufacturing cigars, and after commencing upon a small scale
and making a first-class article, his fame soon spread through the Province, and
the demand for Fair's cigars was so great that it became evident that he must
increase his shop capacity to meet the numerous orders pouring in upon him.
With that end in view he accordingly moved his factory to more extensive pre-
mises a little to the west of his grocery establishment at the comer of Colbome
and Murray Streets, in the East Ward. Since then the business has increased
to such an extent that it was found necessaiy to procure still larger premises,
and consequently the brick building on the east side of Murray Street was pur-
chased and the factory removed into it. The facilities are now such that a large
number of hands are employed, and the output for the last four weeks was
respectively 29,900, 24,800, 32,200, 35,000 ; aggregating no less than 122,000
cigars, the majority of which were the favourite Punch, Patience, Prize Leaf, all
firbt-class cigars. This large amount was far less than required to fill the orders
on the bo3k8 of the proprietor. Mr. Fair, although paying the highest wages
demanded,finds great difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of hands to enable
him to keep up with the demand. The building now used is a story and a half,
with a frontage of 88 feet on Colborne Street and 60 feet on Murray Street Tlie
ground floor is used as a workshop, stripping room, curing room, packing room
and bond room, while the upper floor is used for drying purposea The room
adjoining on the east side is the packing room, where the cigars are all assorted
by three experts and packed. The principal markets outside the Province of
Ontario are England and Manitoba. According to the Trade and Navigation
Eetums, and the shipping book of the factory, he exports more cigars to England
than any other manufacturer in the Dominion. Manitoba has also been a good
customer, and to such an extent that he has been obliged to send an agent there
to look 2&ex the interests of his business. In connection with the cigar' trade,
Mr. Fair does a very extensive grocery and liquor business, both retail and
wholesale. In foreign liquors and wines he imports direfbt from the vineyards,
thus guaranteeing the genuine article.
Canndl £ Co,^ Cigar Makers, produce from fifteen to twenty-five thousand
cigars per week, for which six to eight hundred pounds of leaf tobacco are con-
sumed. The work is pertbrmed by hand, and gives employment to a force of
fifteen to twenty hands, one-third of whom are women.
Paterson's Wlwlesah Confecticmeiy and Cigar Manufactory. — The above enter-
prize was established by Iteming and Paterson, in the west end of the building
now occupied by the factory, in April,* 1863. They employed about fifteen or
sixteen hands, and manufactured certain lines of candies and cigars. In 1872
Mr. Leeming withdrew from the firm, and since then Mr. Paterson has been
sole proprietor of the business. Owing to the rapid growth of the business, he
purchased the adjoining building, which he now occupies, and in the near future
LOCAL HISTORY. 287
he will again enlarge his factory. He employs about seventy-five hands, and
uses about one ton of sugar a day, and about twenty-three barrels of flour per
diem. He manufactures annually about 1,500,000 cigars, and all his goods
find quick and ready sale in the markets of Ontario. The power for his
machinery is furnished by a large steam engine. His manufactures consist of
plain and fancy candies, biscuit, and Havana and seed leaf cigars, the tobacco
for the latter being purchased at New York and in the Connecticut markets.
He employs five travelling salesmen, and has four waggons on the road. At
his branch house at Belleville five men are employed. Another branch is
located at St. Catharine's. Mr. Paterson's business has doubled itself in the
past five years, and has reached such dimensions that he is obliged to increase
his facilities and enlarge his quarters for manufacturing more extensively.
Waierous Engine Works, — The above establishment was founded in 1844 by
P. C. YanBrocklin, who commenced making stoves, and subsequently engaged
in the manufacture of threshing machines. In 1849 C. H. Waterous began
the manufacture of steam engines and mills, taking a one-fourth interest in the
concern. This business was continued until 1857, when, in connection with
Messrs. Ganson, Goold and Bennett, he purchased the plant and tools, and
commenced operating under the firm name of Ganson, Waterous & Co. In
1864 Mr. Goold, the last of the former partners, withdrew, and Mr. G. H.
Wilkes was admitted into the partnership, and the name of the firm changed
to C. H. Waterous & Co. Business was continued under this style until 1874,
when a stock company was formed under the Limited Liability Act, which
operated under the name of the Waterous Engine Works Company, as it is now
known. Mr. Waterous is still the general manager of the company, and the
stock is all owned by himself and family. The business has increased in a
marked degree since 1849 ; then twenty-five hands were employed, and the
annual production amounted to about $30,000 ; to-day one hundred and eighty
men are employed, and work to the value of $285,000 produced annually. The
products consist chiefly of agricultural engines, small grist-mills, saw-mills,
shingle-mills, &c. The works comprise eight departments, vi^. : Finishing,
moulding, carpenter, pattern, blacksmithing, erecting, boiler making and paint-
ing. The machinery is operated by a forty-horse power engine.
The Globe Mutual Fire Insurance Co. — The above enterprise, which is another
monument of the progressive spirit of Brantford citizens, was organized on the
5ih September, 1873, with seventy-eight members and the following first
officers : Hon. S. J. Jones, Pres. ; T. S. Sheuston, Vice-Pres. ; G. R. Van-
Norman, Secretary. It was incorporated under 36 Vic, chap. 44, Ontario
Statutes, and is, as the name indicates, purely a mutual company. When the
risk is accepted a premium note is taken, on which an annual assessment is
made whether a fire occurs or not There are now in force about 900 policies,
involving risk to the amount of over $600,000. The following are the officers
for the ensuing year : John Strickland, President ; Alfred Watts, Vice-Presi-
dent, Directors : G. W. Howell, Oakland; L. B. Lapierre, Paris ; J. R Douglas,
Burford ; P. Huflfman, Northfield ; S. Whitaker. Brantford ; P. S. Howell, St.
Geoiga Managers : K Sims & Son.
The Kerhy Mills^ situated on Grand River at the western end of Adelaide
Street^ are among the ancient landmarks of the oldtime Town of Brantford.
288 HISTOBY OF BBAirr COUNTY.
•
These mills were erected by Abram Eerby about the year 1838, and have
withstood all sorts of mishaps by floods and the breaking of dams, eta There
are three run of stones, and the necessary bolting and refining machinery for
producing fine flour, commeal, buckwheat flour and chops. Four hands are
employed, who produce about two hundred barrels of flour per week. The
power is supplied from Grand Biver, and is one of the oldest mill sites in Brant
County.
A. Watts* Flouring Mills. — ^This important industrial establishment is located
on the old Grand River Navigation cut-off. In 1853 the brick mill building,
then owned by Mr. Wilkes, was destroyed by fire ; this property was on the site
of the present mill owned by Mr. Watts. In 1856 Alexander Bunnell erected
the mills which were known fur several years as the Bunnell Merchant Milk
The property finally came into the hands of the present proprietor, who has kept
pace with all the improvements in machinery and processes which modem
experience has offered to the world. This mill, which does an immense flouring
business, and now has a capacity for turning out 250 barrels a day, has been
thoroughly overhauled and refitted ; the burr stones have been replaced by rollers,
or roller brakes, said to be much superior to stones, and capable of produdDg
a much finer grade of fiour. Eighteen sets of rollers have been placed in with
their attendant bolts, elevators, etc., and purifiers, separators, scourers and brush-
ing machines of most intricate and perfect designs, with a view to manufac-
turing the highest grade flours. Four double chests of bolts, containing sixteen
itiels, have been put in, the bolting cloth being finest silk. The Bichmond
separator removes all the straw and chess, and sends the wheat beautifully
clean to the scourers and thence to a brushing machine, where it is all brushed
in a most ingenious manner. It is morally impossible for any dirt or toreign
substance to follow the wheat into the rollers aftor passing through this course
of cleaning. The middlings and bran are also purified and brushed, and come
from the purifiers in a thorough state. This mill is driven by four 56-inch
wheels, and a wheel known as the Little Giant, all of the turbine pattern. A.
Watts' brand of fiour, which he manufactures chiefly for the Maritime Provinces,
is considered a sufficient guarantee of its purity, and its sale is never difficult
to efiect The expense in connection with the improvements effected in the
mill, and its general reconstruction within, has been about $12,000, and the
name of the Brant MiUs is doing more probably to advertise Brantford in the
Eastern Provinces than any other institution in the city.
HdmedcUe MiUs. — ^In the month of September, 1856, Oeoige S. Wilkes,
Esq., completed a dam across Grand Biver, at Holmedale, for the purpose of
supplying hydraulic power to the new mills which he had already made pre-
pamtions to build. Times were hard, and there was much discouragement in
Brantford, so much so that Mr. Wilkes' enterprise was looked upon by many as
another useless outlay of capital But the same spirit that impelled the Wilkes
family to forego the pleasures of an older country and become pioneers, moved
him to a persistent effort to carry out the plans which he had adopted. There
is no precise record at hand to fix the date of the building of the mill, but it
was probably put in operation during the year 1857, and was for several years
owned and managed by Mr. Wilkes. The property fell into the hands of Eer
and Coleman ; then Mr. Ker alone controlled it for a time, until in January,
LOCAL HISTORY. 289
1867, Mr. David Plewes succeeded to the proprietorship, and so has continued
until now. This mill property is among the best on Grand River, has a high
*' head and fall/' with an abundance of water at all seasons. The weekly pro-
duct is one thousand barrels of good merchantable Hour, an important item in the
indastries of the City of Brantford. There are employed in this connection
about a dozen men, besides the more indirect advantages to various others who
supply barrels and other packages.
The Brantford New Mills are situated on the south bank of the old canal or
•"Navigation," and are very convenient of access from both town and country.
This property was originally built by Wm. Gibson. The mills were burned, and
rebuilt in 1864 After changing hands once or twice, Mr. Thomas Robson
became the proprietor, and so lias continued until now (1883). The product is
six hundred barrels of flour per week. All common varieties of milling are
turned out, and much attention paid to custom grinding. The mills derive
power from the canal, and are rated at fifty horse-power. There are six hands
employed in the establishment. The proprietor has an office for the purchase
and sfJe of flour and grain upon Colbome Street, and is one of its reliable
business men of the day.
VictoT^ Fawndry was established in 1858 by William Buck, the present
proprietor, in a building on the east e'nd of Colborne Street. About eighteen
years ago he occupied the building in which his business is now carried on.
This building is biick, two and three stories high, and faces about three hun-
dred feet on Cedar Street, and as many on Dumfries Street, the buildings
being about fifty feet wide. The moulding floor covers nearly twenty thousand
square feet The building was originally not so large, having been enlarged
considerably by the present proprietor. It was built by George S. Wilkes, and
Was occupied for a time by H. N. Taft & Co. for a foundry. When Mr. Buck
be^^an business he employed about twenty hands ; he now employs one hundred
and fifty. There are in the foundry the following departments : the moulding
and casting rooms, electro-plating room, machine shops, tin smithing shop,
blacksmith shops, wood-working shops, and pattern fitting rooms. A fifty
horse-power engine supplies the force necessary to propel the large amount
of machinery in the establishment. Mr. Buck controls and manufactures
the '* Radiant Home " Basebumer stove, and " Smyth's Patent Duplex Grates,"
for Canada ; and in addition to these, he manufactures a great variety of wood
and coal heating and cook stoves.
The Grand Trunk Railway Workshops of Brantford, — The Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada has played no unimportant part in developing the resources
of this country. The nistory of a mighty corporation whose ramification
extends and is felt throughout the length and breadth of this continent must
needs be written by abler pens than ours. The important part, however, it has
played in helping this city s prosperity is a matter that cannot fail to prove of
general interest to the public at lai^e. The number of hands employed is two
hundred and twelve, and the probabilities are that this force will ere long be
g^atly augmented. The benefits which have accrued by the location of the
Grand Trunk shops cannot be estimated, and the extension of these works at
no late day will unquestionably form a most important factor in increasing the
industrial interest of the city.
290 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The Hop Farm of Ewmpkrcy Davis, Haq,, is situated on the Burford Road,
adjoining the city boundaries on the west The enterprise was begun in 1847,
by Hooker, Baldwin & Davis, which firm continued the buiiiness until 1852»
when Mr. Humphrey Davis became the sole proprietor, and has continued as
such untiT the present time. There are about thirty acres under cultivation.,
and while the product is not exactly known, it is supposed to be on an average
about seventy thousand pounds per annum. This business employs from tea
to twenty hands during the summer regularly ; while in the harvesting or
picking season there are employed as high as three hundred men, women, boys
and girls. The hops raised here find a market in all parts of the world, acconi-
ing to the various local demands. During the great scarcity of this article in
the fall of 1882, the price was very high, reaching at one time the unprecedented
figure of $1.20 per pound.
W. H. JvU, on the eastern border of Brantf ord, is also engaged in the same
business.
Adjoining Mr. Davis' hop fields is one owned by Job Bingham. These
industries are said to be somewhat uncertain in their results, yet, with good
management and proper attention to the selecting and caring for the plants, it
is a reasonablv sure business.
ff. W. Petrie A Co,, Machinists and Oeneral Machine Dealers, — ^The senior
member of this firm commenced business in Brantf ord, as a practical machin-
ist, in 1877. Soon after this he began to buy and sell all classes of machinery,
which the times and the locality demanded. By thus combining the various
features of a workshop with the commercial aiivantages of an exchange, he
has succeeded in building up a flourishing addition to the many industries of
the city. In 1882 Mr. A. Petrie became associated with the original owner ;
since then the business has been conducted under the name and style of H.
W. Petrie & Co. The shops contain the usual number and kind of sub-shops
and labour-saving machinery, the power for which is supplied by a steam engine
of ample size. From six to ten hands are employed, and a respectable amount
of material consumed in the regular operations of the establishment.
The Brantford Planing MiU. — ^This is one of the oldest shops in the City
of Brantford. It was built by Wm. Watt, in 1852 or 1853. On the I3th of
August, 1857, a few minutes after twelve o'clock, the boiler of this establish-
ment exploded with terrific violence. The engine house was completely de-
molished, but no person was injured ; the loss was about $1,000, caus^ by
the destruction of and injury to machinery. This establishment was destroy^
by fire on the night of March 8th, 1858. Mr. Watt's loss was about $10,000,.
with $3,000 insurance. The shop was rebuilt immediately, and stocked with
first-class tools and machinery. It has been extended and enlarged twice
since it was first built It is safe to affirm that more of the material details
of the present City of Brantford have been constructed in this shop than in
any other in this neighborhood From twenty to sixty hands are employed
in producing all kinds of joiner and building materials.
Vity Planing MiU. — ^The above manufactory was commenced in Januaiy,
1881. The building is constructed of white brick, and situate at the comer of
Brant Avenue and Dalhousie Street Its dimensions are 60 by 40 feet, two
stories, with a wing on the south side of 30 by 30 feet, and also a separate
^y^^A-m/^
^ T»f; mm m'nr
.-•»
LOCAL HISTORY. 293
brick building, 18 by 26 feet, about twenty feet to the west, used as a paint
shop. The principal goods manufactured here are doors, sashes, Venetian and
other blinds, house furnishings, matched flooring, mouldings and fanning mills,
the latter being the last description of articles the firm has undertaken to
manufacture, tney having obtained a patent in Pecember last for certain im-
portant improvements, which they claim will supersede all others in present
use, and for which they anticipate a large demand, as the price will not be
more than an ordinary mill. There are quite a number already made, although
work upon them was only commenced in October. The improvements covered
by the patent are that two shoots are used by which three giudes of grain can
be obtained if necessary, and the different seeds, chess, &a, are carried into
separate boxes. To the east of the building is the engine and boiler house,
the former being 35 horse power and the latter 15 horse power. The number
of hands employed weekly averages over twelve, although at times there are as
many as eighteen or twenty. In connection with the factory there are com-
modious premises adjoining, where lumber and manufactured goods are stored
preparatory to shipping. This firm, Costin Brothers, do considerable business
by shipping prepared lumber for different parts of buildings to Manitoba, the
balance of their trade being local. Although the factory ha 3 only been in
existence scarcely two years, an immense amount of work has been turned out,
and the coming year will witness a very large increase.
Hie Cockshutt Plow Company (Limited) is the name of one of the most
important industrial establishments in central Ontario. It was started in the
year 1877 by James G. Cockshutt, and called The Brantford Plow Works.
The original building was sixty by forty feet, and three stories high ; in 1878
a foundry was added, and the year following a machine room. In 1880 a new
foundry was erected, and thjB old one converted into a blacksmith shop ; a
boiler room was put up in 1881, and in 18^2 a new main building, fifty by
sixty feet and three stories high, was built From the foregoing record of
advancement, the reader can judge of the thrift of this enterprise. These shops
are full of new and improved machinery and tools, for the production of the
various implements for which the owners are widely celebrated. The attention
of this firm is devoted to the manufacture of six varieties of farm machinery,
namely : plows, gang-plows, sulky-plows, cultivators, rollers and corn-planters.
The patents covering what is known as the " Scientific Iron Plow Beam " and
** Diamond-Point Cultivator" are held by this house, thus enabling it to put
into market some of the best and most practical devices that modem
ingenuity has offered as an abridgment to the labours of the husbandman. It
m believed that this establishment is the most extensive plow factory in the
Dominion of Canada ; if not, it certainly ranks among the very first in point
of capacity, product and good management. The opening of the new North-
West has already given an impetus to several industrial enterprises here in
Brantford, but none perhaps have better prospects in that new field than the
Cockshutt Plow Company. There are at present employed about fifty men,
in all departments, of skiUed and common labour. The motive power is steam,
rating as equal to that of forty horses, while the annual consumption of
matenal adds an important item to the carrying trade of the city.
18
294 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Bradley Garretson Jk Co,, Publishers of Standard Bdigiovs Worh^—Tim
enterprising book concern is one of the leadinp^ houses of the west ; its branches
are located at Philadelphia, Pa., Chicago, III, Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Ma,
Nashville, Tenn., San francisco, Cal., Brantford, Ont., St Johns, N. B., and at
many other of the towns and cities of the American continent The local
branch of this house was established by Mr. D. R. Wilson on the loth of July,
1876, since which time it has grown to be one of the most important houses of
its kind in Canada. Some idea of its business may be formed by the amount
expended for postage, which item is equal to no less than about three hundred
dollars per month (estimated to be near one-seventh of the mail business of the
city). The force employed at Brantford is composed of from fifteen to twenty
corresponding clerks and other assistants. All the modern appliances for saving
time, labour and money, are in use at this office. Type-writing machines, short-
hand writers, etc., are used to all possible advantage. The business for the
past four years has been under the sole management of Rev. T. S. Linscott, a
gentleman of high business qualifications, ample education and natural
resources. Since his management of the business it has increased more than
fourfold, and from the energetic way business is being pushed, it is fair to
judge that the business is destined to greatly increase and grow to mammoth
proportions. The firm are thinking of manufacturing their books in Canada,
and thus save large import duties. If they decide to do this, it will necessi-
tate moving their head Canadian house to Toronto ; still, it is intended to con-
tinue a branch house at Brantford. It would be a great loss to the community
to have so enterprising a firm move away. There would, as seen by the above
figures, be a great falling oif in the Post Office business, and from the local Cus-
toms Department. From Brantford is controlled all Canadian territory west of
New Brunswick, taking in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British
Columbia, and all the North- West Territories; scattered through these provinces
there were over one thousand agents appointed in the year 1882 ; tnese new
agents, together with old agents previously appointed, number between two
and three thousand men. Until recently, the Maritime Provinces were con-
trolled by the Brantford house, but about a year ago Mr. J. W. Kerly, of this
city, was sent to St John, N. B., to establish a business, which bids fair to
become a leading business in that territory. Notwithstanding the large pro-
portions of the above busine&s, no adequate knowledge exists of it in the city,
the business being entirely wholesale ; and outside of the printing establish-
ments, and the Post Office and Customs Departments, very few are aware of the
flourishing condition of this house ; but it nas now a Dominion-wide reputa-
tion, there being scarcely a city, or town, or township without a representative.
This house is doing a great work for the moral and religious education of the
people. The books they handle are all of a high class character ; besides, they
are chiefly religious books, written by standard authors, and in scattering them
by the tens of thousands as they are doing, a great work is being accomplished.
The SheejhSkin Tannery of FrarMin and John Ott, Oxford Sir* et^ was estab-
lished in 1853 by Franklin Ott In 1879 the building, which was of frame-
work, was burned down, and during the same year was replaced by the brick
edifice now occupied by the firm. It stands next to Lome Bridge in West
Brant. From twenty to twenty-five hands are constantly employed in this
LOCAL HISTORY. 295
and the Greenwich Street Factory, and about 100,000 sheep-skins tanned per
annum, the principal productions being morocco and russets. The partnership
is not registered but the partners enjoy an equality in the business. They are
wide-awake energetic business men, thoroughly conversant with all the details
of their trade» and control one of the most important branches of manufactui*e
in the city.
The Greenwich Street tannery was established as a tannery in 1880 by
Franklin Ott, and from it heavy leather of several varieties is produced. It is
operated by steam power. The building was erected in 1863 for a vinegar
factory, by D. Stevenson, who occupied it for a few years for the purpose
intend^. Subsequently it was occupied as a private dwelling house until
about the year 1880, when the Otts entered it and converted it into a tannery.
The Brantford^oap Works was begun by Charles Watts in 1856, and has
increased until it is one of the roost extensive establishments of the kind in
Ontario. Fourteen varieties of goods ai-e produced, ranging from the finest
toilet soap to the most improved brands of laundry bars. The weekly con-
sumption of tallow amounts to about sixteen thousand pounds, besides a like
propi)rtion of other stock ; the various manipulations are conducted under two
general heads or departments, known respectively as the staple and fancy depart-
ments. There ai-e fifteen men employed ; also machinery used, which is pro-
pelled by a steam engine of fifteen horse-power. The premises have been
extended from time to time to accommodate the requirements of the growing
trade. The soaps from this house find their way to all parts of the Dominion
of Canada, including the new North-West Territories. The present proprietors
are Mr. Alfred Watts and Mr. Bobert Henry, under the name and style of A.
Watts & Co. This factory has been for the past twenty-five years under the
management of Mr. Chas. Jarvis, whose long connection with the business has
made him king over all, and to-day the soaps manufactured by this firm take
the lead throughout the Dominion.
British America Starch Company (Limited). — The starch manufacturing
industry had its inception in Brantlord several years ago, out of a vinegar works
speculation. Imlach & Howell entered into the manufacturing of vinegar in
the building now known as Jarvis' Broom Factory, under a patent for producing
the article fh)m com. The process was to produce starch from the corn, thence
saccharine matter, and from that vinegar. Charles fiomaine. Inland Revenue
officer, however, pounced down on the works, which were consequently aban-
doned. Imlach & Gould then commenced the manufacturing of starch only,
at the same place. About 1871 Andrew Morton bought out Gould's interest
and continued on with Imlach till about 1873, when Morton bought out Imlach's
interest also, and carried on the business by himself. He erected at that time
a brick factory at the *' locks," three miles down the canal bank. This was
destroyed by fire on the Slst July, 1881. In 1877 George Foster entered into
partnership with Andrew Morton. Af teV the fire a joint stock company was
formed, and the large brick building on the canal, at first used as a woollen mill
and subsequently as a furniture factory by Builder, was bought and fitted up,
with considerable additions and improvements, for the starch works as they now
exist. They are run by water-power, and give employment to about thirty
hands, producing from eight to nine thousand tons per annum of blue and
296 HISTORY OF BKANT COtTNTY.
white laundry starches, as well as a large quantity of prepared com for culioary
purposes. There are nine dwelUng houses for the employees attached to the
works, all occupied.
W. J?. Welding's Manufactory of Stoneware, — ^The above enterprise was started
in 1849 by Justice Martin, of Lyons, New York, under the firm name of Justice
Martin & Co. He employed about six men, and occupied a frame building
which stood where the business is now carried on, comer of Dalhousie and Clar-
ence Streets. It was the first enterprise of this character in Canada, and in
the beginning produced about $8,000 worth of ware per annum. After various
firm changes the business came into the hands of Welding & Belding in 18GS,
and about five years later the factory was destroyed by fire. Shortly after the
destruction of the building Mr. Welding retired from the firm, and Mr. Belding
undertook to close out the business ; but a few months lat^ Mr. Welding re-
purchased the estate, rebuilt the building in brick, and since then has been
sole proprietor of the concern. There are four departments in the factory, viz. :
one for preparing the clay, the turning room, the moulding room, and the burn-
ing department. Fifteen men are employed, and the most extensive pottery
business of Canada carried is on here. The ware produced is of a superior
quality, and finds ready sale in the market at the highest figures
Brant ford Stove Works. — This enterpiise was established by the present pro-
prietor, B. G. Tisdale, in 1850, in the brick bUilding on south side of Dalhousie
Street, between Market and Queen Streets. Mr. Tisdale manufactures on a
large scale several varieties of stoves and stove furniture, consuming some twenty
tons of iron per week, and employing forty hands. The machinery is run by
steam power, and the establishment is complete in all the departments necessary
for canying on a foundry on an extensive scale.
Sweet Com Canning Factory. — This industry was inaugurated by Mr. D. IL
Baldwin in the year 1880, at what is known as " Eagle Place," a finely situated
point about one and one-half miles south of Brantford. A tract of eighty-iive
acres of land is devoted to the raising of an extra quality of sweet corn ; this
com is all husked by hand in a careful manner ; the com is then cut from the
cob by appropriate machinery, and the grains or kernels are prepared for can-
ning, which is done while the com is in a raw state. The next process is the
cooking, which is accomplished after the cans are closed, thus preserving the
natural flavour and virtue of the corn, as by this method all evaporation of the
aroma is prevented. This establishment is conveniently arranged for the vari-
ous manipulations that are performed therein. Each department has its dis-
tinctive character, and throughout the whole there is an air of cleanliness and
order equal to the kitchen of a tidy housewife. The different pieces of ap-
paratus and machinery are all of thn best modern style, and are supplied with
steam and power from a forty horse-power steam engine with good boilers.
This plant was completed at a cost of about six thousand dollars, and gives
employment to seventy-five men during the canning season, which lasts only
about eighteen day& All goods produced here find a ready market in the
Dominion of Canada^ and add materially to the list of palatable articles pro-
duced in this county.
The Varnish Manufactory of Messrs, Whiting Jk Scarfe, — One of the most
unpretentious, and at the same time one of the most vigorous, local manofac-
LOCAL HISTORY. 297
taring interests is the one named above. Rstablished over seven years ago, it
may be said to havf^ reached that stage where all doubt as to its success have
passed. The present proprietors, although not the original inceptors, are
nevertheless the gentlemen to whom are due the credit for the present pros-
perous and vigorous position which it has attained as one of the leading
industries in Brantford. The factory is situated on Victoria Street, and is
built of white brick 45 x 30 feet, two stories ; the upper floor is used tem-
porarily as an office, and the lower one exclusively for storing the varnishes,
iivhich are kept in large tanks holding from 250 to 350 gallons each. The
present capacity is about $85,000 annually, and at the present rate of increase
there is but little question but that next year's figures will reach the sum of
$200,000, if not more. The works cover an area of over three-quarters of an
acre, and a substantial brick dwelling is upon the premises, where a trusty
night watchman resides. The varnishes are put up ready for shipment in tin
cans holding from five to ten gallons, and in barrels and half barrels. In brief,
the works and their products have more than a local reputation, and in this
respect Messrs. Whiting & Scarfe are aiding to build up what may become
one of the most prominent manufacturing enterprises of the Province.
Hie Holmedme Woollen Mills were started in 1875 by Wm. Slingsby.
In 1877 the firm was changed to Wm. Slingsby & Sons. This mill is run
entirely upon one variety of goods, viz., blankets, of which three hundred and
sixty pairs are produced per week, to accomplish which three thousand pounds
of wool are required. There are employed twenty-two men and ten women. In
1876 the mill was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt by the present firm in 1877.
The Craven Wincey mill was erected by Clayton Slater, who commenced
the work of construction in September, 1882. The main building is 152 feet
long by 50 feet wide, and three stories high. It is built of white brick. The
machinery consists of four complete sets of woollen machinery, also 2,500
spindles and preparation for spinning cotton warp, and 100 looms. The mill
is built for the manufacture of winceys, flannels, and other union or all wool
goods.
Customs Department.
Brantford became a port of entry in 1852, with Valentine Hall as first Col-
lector. On his resignation in 1853, David Cui*tis wa<) appointed to the office. In
1854 J. E. Fitch was appointed Surveyor, and John C. Davis Landing- Waiter.
In 1858 Mr. Fitch being promoted to the collectorship at Windsor, Alexander
Gordon became his successor, and held the position till his death. A. S, Wilson
was appointed Clerk in 1862, and Solon W. McMichael in October, 1872. The
present oflScers are : H. B. Leeming, Collector ; S. W. McMichael, Chief Clerk
and Landing- Waiter; and Thomas Foster, Landing- Waiter and Searcher. The
ofiice of the Customs Department has been moved from place to place frequently
since its inception in Brantford, the first one being at a landing wharf on the
Grand River Canal. Finally it was moved on June 26th, 1880, into the hand-
some edifice built by the Government for Government offices, on the north-
east comer af George and Dalhousie Streets^ By way of comparison, and to
show the increase of returns for the port of Brantford between the years 1856
and 1882, a few brief statistics may be of interest : —
\
298 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUHXr.
1856— Amount Imports, .... $236,636 00
Duty Collected, .... 26,298 23
Entered for Home Consumption, . 245,526 00
Exports, . . . ■ . . 140,487 00
It
It
(4
1882— Amount Imports . • . . 8845,254 00
Duty Collected . . 138,269 16
Entered for Home Consumption . 839,977 00
Exports ..... 312,981 00
The tariff in 1856 langed from 15 down to 2^ per cent, and in 1882 from
35 to 5 per cent, in many cases a specific duty over and above the ad valorem
duty being charged.
Inland Revenue Depaktment.
This department was separated from the Customs as an independent branch
about the year 1862. From that date up to 1867, the year of the Confedera-
tion of the Provinces, the business was divided into " collectors," each collector
doing his own work. In 1867 the department was reorganized into " collec-
tion divisions,*' the arrangement that at present exists, and Mr. Hart was
appointed Collector. John Spence has filled that office for the past year for
what is now called the ** Brantford Division," and which comprises the City of
Brantford and the Counties of Brant, Oxford and Norfolk. He is assisted by
W. L Hawkins, Book-keeper and Deputy, and George Henwood, Outside
Officer. The offices of the Inland Eevenue are in the Post Office building and
adjoining the Customs. In 1872 the collections amounted to S80,707, and in
1882 the amount was $113,600, showing an increase in the decade of 832,893.
Banking Cobcpanies.
i
Bank of British North America., Brantford Branch, — ^This highly service-
able supplement to the mercantile interests of the County of Brant was intro-
duced in 1846, with James Christie as first Manager. On his death, in 1754,
Charles F. Smithers, now President of the Bank of Montreal, became his suc-
cessor. He was followed, in 1856, by James C. Geddes, who in turn was
succeeded by, the present Manager, Alexander Eoberts«>n, in 1864. The first
building in Brantford in which this branch bank did business was on the
north side of Colborne Street, where D. Cliflford's furniture store now is. It
was subsequently burnt down and rebuilt. The bank was in 1858 moved into
the present structure on Darling Street, next to Zion Church.
Canadian Bank of Commerce, Brantford Branch. — This banking establish-
ment may be said to be but in its comparative infancy in Brantford, it having
been established as late as 1872, in the building at present occupied by it, on
the corner of Colborne and Queen Streets, , J. H. Plummer was the fir^t
Manager, and was succeeded, in about a year from his appointment, by James
Pollock, who in turn was followed, in 1877, by the present Manager, William
BobertSy under whose efficient charge this branch has made rapid progress.
LOCAL HISTOBr. 299
Bank of MorUredlt Brantford Branch, — This useful adjunct to the com-
mercial interests of the County of Brant was opened in Brantford with William
Muirhead as its pioneer agent, and as such he is well remembered by the early
business men of the vicinity. He was succeeded by Archibald Creer (who
afterwards organized the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and became its first
cashier). A. Hess, Esq., was the third agent, and was followed by W. J.
Buchanan, as Manager. Bfr. Buchanan is now the General Manager of the
bank, and upon his assuming that important trust, the position of Local Man-
ager was given to Samuel Bead, who filled the place until a few years since,
when he retired. The present Manager, Walter Lindsay Creighton, is a gen-
tleman of great experience and ability in positions of this character. He is a
native of Canada, and is a son of Colonel Creighton, late of H. M. Seventieth
Re^dment.
The Brantford Loan and Savings Society was organized in July, 1878, as a
stock company, with $150,000 capital. The ofiicers are at present : Alfred
Watts, Pre:>ident ; Humphrey Davis, Vice-President ; J. Pollock, Manager.
Their place of business is on the south side of Colbome Street, west of Market.
The Boyal Loan and Savings Company was organized on the 1st of June,
1876, with the following oflicers : Thomas S. Shenston, President ; William
Watt, Vice-President. The paid-up cash capital is S204,000 ; the total assets,
$661,000. The loans made here are upon real estate only, while the house
receives money on deposit, and allows interest thereon. The first ofiice occu-
pied by this institution was in Tainsh's building on Market Street. In July,
1882, they moved into the finely situated suite of rooms in the. Commercial
Block, corner of DaJhousie and George Streets. R. S. Schell, Esq., is the
present Manager.
The Board of Trade.
This organization, which numbers among its contributors all the promi-
nent manufacturers and many of the merchants of the city, was established
more than fifteen years ago, largely through the eflTorts of George H. Wilkes,
the present Secretaiy of the Board, who was at that time a member of the firm
of Waterous & Co. The meetings of the Board were held at stated intervals
with great regularity for a number of years, but the interest afterward seemed *
to flag, and finally the meetings were discontinued. About four years ago the
Board was reorganized under more favourable auspices, and in pursuance to
an Act passed favouring the formation of such boards. The organization is
now in successful operation, with a membership of over eighty. The meetings
are presided over by George Watt, the President of the Board, from whom the
foregoing facts were obtained.
300 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
CHAPTER III.
Lodges, Societies and Bands. — Y.M.C.A. — The Dufferin
Rifles.
Lodges, Societies and Bands.
GcTt Lodge, No. 34, /. 0. 0. F. — During the summer of 1854 a deputation of
such as were interested in the progress of Oddfellowship proceeded to Buffalo,
New York, and were there formally initiated into the work of the Order by
Hesperian Lodge of that city. In September of the same year these brothers
were pleased to apply to the Grand Lodge of the United States, then in session,
for a charter enabling them to open a lodge in Brantford. The request was
granted, and on the 27th of December, 1854, Past Grand G. W. Malloch,
assisted by ^Brother T. Parsons, Deputy Grand Sire, of Buffalo, instituted Gore
Lodge, No. 34. The names of the above mentioned pioneers of Oddfellowship
are incorporated with the charter ; they ar« : John Cameron, James Woodyatt,
George Varey, Thomas Broughton, and Amos B. Currier. The first officers
chosen were : John Cameron, N.G. ; Jas. Woodyatt, V.G. ; G. Varey, P.S.; JaSw
F. Wheaton, RS. ; Thomas Broughton, Treasurer. On the 17th of February,
1860, the lodge room of this subdivision was destroyed by fire, together with
its furniture, books, records, emblems and regalia. This was a discouraging
event in the history of Gore Lod.^e, but the same spirit which prompted the
fathers of the organization to go abix)ad for a charter canied them through the
difficulty, and in due time they were again at work. When, in course of events,
the Order came to the formation of a Grand Lodge for the Province of Ontario,
a new charter was issued by that body to Gore Lodge. This instrument is
'signed by Samuel G. Dolson, as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ontario,
and bears date at St. Catharines, August 6th, 1861.
The third of a century will have passed ere long since Grore Lodge began the
good work of mutual assistance and charity ; many who once sat in her fraternal
seclusion have taken a ** final card " from all the orders of earth ; others have
gone forth upon the various missions of life, while a few only of those who
were '' at the christening " remain to recount the details of her early history.
Among the veterans of Oddfellowship are two worthy members of Gore
Lodge, viz. : James Woodyatt, Esq., a charter member and the first Vice-Grand ;
having " passed the chairs " of his own lodge, was chosen Representative to the
Graud Lodge of Ontario in 1858 ; Grand Secretary and Treasurer in 1862 ;
Grand Master in 1863; and in 1867 he was elected Grand Bepresentative to the
Sovereign Grand Lodge, the supreme body of the order in America, which
honourable station he yet fills with great credit to himself and the brother-
hood. J. B. King was initiated by Gore Lodge in 1858, removed to Cincinnati,
LOCAL HISTORY. 301
Ohio, and became a member of Queen City Lodge ; returned to Brantford and
to his home Lodge in 1862 ; chosen Vice-Grand in 1863, and Noble Grand the
same year ; in 1865 he was sent to the Qrand Lodge of Ontario as Bepresenta-
tive ; there he was appointed Grand Guardian. In 1866 he was elected Grand
Secretary and Treasurer, the duties of which he performed until the two offices
were separated in 1870, when he was chosen Grand Secretary, and has held
that position ever since. It is needless to add that these venerable and faithful
members of this great fraternity have the esteem and confidence of all their
brethren, especisdly of the younger and more active members of the present.
The following is a roster of the oflScers who are now serving this lodge : Wm.
Douglass, N. G. ; A. Ball, V. G. ; R W. Brooks, R. S. ; R. S. Schell, P. S. ; G.
E. Adams, Treas. ; Wra. Spence, War. ; Wm. Mcintosh, Con. ; John Campbell,
I. G. ; L. Fisher, 0. G. ; E J. Stephenson, R. S. N. G. ; H. Ellis. L. S. N. G. ;
P. Purves. R S. V. G. ; J. Doringer, L. S. V. G. ; F. Austin, R. S. S. ; G. Slaght,
L S. S. ; W. Finlayson, Chap.
Brant JBncampTn^nt No. 4, LO.O.F., was instituted September 15th, 1868,
by H. C. Bingham, District Deputy Grand Sire, although the charter bears
date August 6th of the year following. The charter members were as follows :
A. D. Clement, L Jackson, J. B. King, E. Chalcraft, C. H. Clement, P. B.
Hatch, John Noble. In July, 1882. Brant Encampment took up permanent
quarters in its fine new hall in the Heyd Block, comer of Dalhousie and George
Streets. Having tw(t healthy subordinate lodges near at hand to supply it
with advancing members, it is in a flourishing condition, with about eighty
Patriarchs on its rolls. The present officers are : J. J. Dickson, C.P. ; Wm.
Cowherd, H.P. ; M. Truesdalc, S.W. ; R J. Fraser, J.W. ; F. O. Grenny, Scribe ;
James Woodyatt, G. ; H. C. Montgomery, C.S. ; C. Griss, J.S. ; J. C. Heaton,
Guide ; J. L. Dalrymple, Ist W. ; J. W. Tutt, 2nd W. ; J. C. Greenless, 3rd W. ;
L. Fisher, 4th W.
Ifarmony Lodge, No. 15, LO.O.F., was organized by the following five
members from Gore Lodge in 1873, viz. : Alexander Clement, Charley Clement,
R Cameron, John Noble and George Hardy. The lodge met with the parent
society until April, U882,9when they leased a room in Commercial Block,
corner Geoi^e and Dalhousie Streets, where the meetings are now held. There
are now 82 members of the society. The present officers are : H. C. Mont-
gomery, J.P.G. ; S. M. Thompson, N.G. ; Robert Armstrong, V.G. ; L. F. Hade,
P.S. ; J. C. Heaton, R.S. ; J. J. Dixon, Treasurer.
BrarU Lodge No. 45, A. F. <t A. M, — Soon after the incorporation of the Town
of Brantford. a lodge of the masonic fraternity was organized, and continued
in successful operation until about the time of the Morgan excitement, when
the interest greatly flagged, and meetings were only held at long intervals,
and finally the lodge ceased to exist Of its officers or the number of members
we are unable to speak, as the most diligent inquiry fails to discover any trace
of this, the pioneer lodge of masons. After the Morgan excitement had sub-
sided and Masonry had begun to revive, several citizens of the town began to
agitate the subject of organizing another lodge. In 1853 a dispensation was
obtained and a charter granted bv the Grand Lodge of Ireland for the formation
of Brant Lodge No. 45, and the lodge was duly instituted, with about a dozen
members and the following officers : Dr. Hen wood, W.M. ; D. Curtis, J.W. ;
302 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
and Bro. Scott, Secretary. In 1868 the society received a severe blow in the
loss of their entire property by fire, nothing having been saved except the
charter. With this a new beginuing was made ; and now, after having its
nambers diminished by the formation of another lodge. Brant Loiige numbers
nearly a hundred members. A room in Tisdal's Building, i^hich has been
leased for that purpose, is occupied as a lodge room. The present officers are :
K Kerster, W.M.; B. H. Both well, S.W.; S.Page, J.W.; George Lindsley,
Secretary.
Doric Lodge No. 121, A, F, & A. M., was instituted November 25, in the year
of Masonry 5859 (A.D. 1859), with seven members. The first officeis were :
Matthew William Pruyn, W.M. ; John Orr, S.W ; Thomas Cheesman, J. W. ;
Keginald Henwood, Secretary. The lodge met in the Brant Lodge room, and
with that lodge lost its pioperty in the fire of 1868. This lodge now has a
membership of about sixty. The present officers are : Robert Ashton, W.M. ;
Henry A. Penfold, S. W. ; Job Wood. J.W. ; Charles Heyd, Treasurer ; James P.
Excell, Secretary; William E. Winshall, S.D. ; James Fisher, J.D. ; Wesley
Howell, D. of C. ; James Tatersall, J.Q. ; Wm. Roope, Tyler.
Mount fforeb Chapter No. 20, A. F. <t A. Af., was chartered by the Grand
Chapter at their annual meeting in Belleville, on February 20tb, 1861, and
was instituted by R.E. Comp. Thomas Duggan, Grand Superintendent of the
Hamilton District, assisted by RE. Comp. T. B. Harris, Grand Scribe E. ; Wra.
Bellehouse, Grand Treasurer ; and Companions W. Rei4, James M. Rogerson,
M. F. Shaler, Thomas McCracken, J. W. Murton, Johnson Waddell, Jacob
Chase, Alexander Gordon, and others, on the 31st of January, 1861, under a
dispensation dated the same month. There were eleven charter members. The
first officers were : David Curtis, First Principal Z. ; A. Huntington, Second
Principal H. ; E. R Sullivan, Third Principal «f.
St. Andrevjs Society. — The Brantford St. Andrew's Society was founded
at a meeting at Yardington's Hotel, on the 30th day of November, 1850, (St
Andrew's Day). There were present John Steele, Alexander Kirkland, James
Wallace, James Walkinshaw, John Cameron, William Watt, Henry Kirkland,
John Lennox Knox, Henry M. Finlayson, P. S. Stewart, James McKay, and
John W. Petrie. The first officers were appointed as follows : John Steele,
President ; Alex. Kirkland, 1st Vice-President ; James Wallace (tanner), 2nd
Vice-President ; James Wallace (grocer). Treasurer ; Henry Kirkland, Secre-
tary ; J. Walkinshaw, W. Watt, Allan Cleghorn, Committee of Management ;
Bev. Alexander Drummond, Chaplain ; — Bowie, M.D., Physician. At this
meeting a constitution was adopted and the full name of the society given as
the "St. Andrew's Benevolent Society, of the Town and Township of Brant-
ford." Its objects are thus defined : " To relieve the wants of destitute Scotch-
men, members who may become indigent, and the widows and children of
members, to aid emigrants from Scotland by advice and assistance, and to
render all aid to their distressed countrymen in their power." The society has
been in active existence since its foundation, both in the carrying out of its bene-
volent objects, and also as a social and national bond of union amongst the sons
of Scotia in the district Their annual celebrations have always been highly
characterized by *' britherly" feeling among the members and their friends of
other nationalities, in speech^ mirth and song. The Presidents of the society
LOCAL HISTOKY. 303
have been as follows: 1850-1, John Steele; 1852, A. Kirkland; 1853-4, E.
Roy; 1855, Duncan McKay ; 1856 to 1861. Allan Cleghorn ; 1862, Alexander
Robertson: 1863. W. H. DeLisle; 1864-5, W. Watt, Sr.; 1866, Wm. Grant;
1867-8, Alex. Robertson; 1869, J. T. Gilkison ; 1870-1, Thos. McLean ; 1872-3,
W. Paterson, M.F. ; 1874-6, Robert Henry; 1877, J. K. Osborne; 1878-9, D.'
Leslie Philip, MD, ; 1880-81, W. Watt, Jr. ; 1882-3, Alexander Bobertson. The
£ resent officers of the society ^e as follows: A. Robertson, President; Charles
Qlne, 1st Vice-President ; Robei-t Russell, 2nd Vice-President ; Robert Lind-
say, Secretary; W. Watt, Sr., Treasurer; Eev. Dr. Cochrane, Chaplain; D.
L. Philip, MD., Physician ; D. L. Philip, M.D., A. Cleghorn, and George P.
Buchanan, Charitable Committee.
Hacketi True Blue Lodge, No, 28, was organized May 30th, 1878, by W.
Holmes, G. Marshall, M. Albion, and W. Watson, of Hamilton. The first
officers elected were: John Sinclair, W.M.; T. Ballantine, D.M. ; R J. McKenzie,
Secretary ; D. Watson, Treasurer ; John Dawes, D. of C. ; A. Poole, Assistant
D. of C; William Hall, Ist C; A. Feeley, 2nd C. ; John Duncan, 3rd C;
T. Westbrook, 4th C. ; W. McLellan, 5th C. ; George G. Austen, Chaplain ;
A. J. Cromar, Guardian ; T. Davidson, Outride Tyler. There are at present
about thirty-three members in good standing, all of whom are highly interested
in the work of the Order, and take an active part in the ceremonies. The
society are a separate body in themselves, and have adopted a uniform, regalia,
etc. They have also adopted a scheme for the payment of benefits, which will
go into effect during the present year. In February, 1880, a number of mem-
bers withdrew from the Lodge and formed Enniskilleu True Blue Lodge, No.
22. These societies are founded on the principles of the Bible, and it is the
object of the Order to defend the Queen and British liberties, and to join no
other body that is antagonistic to their own. The present officers of Hackett
Lodge are: Thomas Ballentine, W.M. ; Thomas Gardner, D.M. ; George G.
Austen, Secretary; C. Blagbrough, Treasurer; A. Bemhard, Chaplain; J.
Winegardner, D. of C, ; George E. Currie, Guardian ; S. Reeves, I.T. ; W.
Savage, O.T.
Nassau Lodge, Loyal Orange Young Britons, No, 15, was organized' with a
good membership in 1874, the charter being granted under the hands of the
following grand officers: Mackenzie Bo well, 6.M. and Sovereign; James
Ferguson, (4.M., O.Y.B. : Peter Arnott. G. Secretary, O.Y.B. The lodge is still
in successful operation, and meets in Stewart s Block on George Street.
Sanctuary Victoria No, 5987, Ancient Order of Shepherds, was organized
May 29, 1882, with nine charter members. The society is a higher degree pf
the lodge of Foresters. The first officers, who are also the present officers, were
John H. Adams, Pastor ; William Davison, Sub-Pastor ; J. Ashton, Treasurer ;
W. Banford, Scribe. The society now numbers twelve members, and meets on
the first Friday night of each mouth.
Court Glen No, 9, Foresters, was organized in 1878 with seventeen members.
The first officers were John McCann, C.Ii., Wm. Ashbury, Vice C.R ; Henry
Green, Chap. ; George Landon, Secretary ; James P. Excell, Treasurer. The
lodge now has thirty-two members and is presided over by the following offi-
cers : W. G. Dillon, C.R. ; Charles Tanner, V.C.R ; W. G. Watt, Chap. ; L. J.
Pool, Sec. ; J. P. Excell, Treasurer.
804 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Court Brant No. 85, Canadian Order of Foresters, was orgtinized in the «priiig
of 1882 with eighteen members. The first officers were C. B. Lewi?, C.R ;
Henry Canfield, V.C.R ; Andrew Gibson, Chap. ; John Moore, Treas. ; James
Grant, Sec'y. There are now thirty-five members. The following gentlemen
are the present officers : Arthur Gammage, C.R ; Fred Quirk, Chap. ; James
Grant, Sec. ; James Armstrong, Treas.
Court Endeavour No. 5987, Ancient Order ofFmresters. — The above society was
instituted October 12, 1874, by the officers of Hamilton United District^ the
charter members were F. Guest, J. Davison, L. Bose, W. White, T. Kice, W.
March, C« VanBrocklin, and G. Barber. The court has leased and furnished a
hall for their own use in Heyd's Block, opposite the Post Dffice, and now has a
membership of about one hundred. The object of the society is to provide for
its members during illness and to pay their funeral expenses at death. A
weekly benefit of four dollars is paid to a brother in illness, $100 is paid to
their families at the death of the member, and $50 is paid to the member at
the death of his wife. The present officers are : W. Harris, Chief Ranger ; H.
Harrison, Sub-Chief Banger ; A Webster, Senior Woodward ; A. Bond, Junior
Woodward ; J. Kifchmer, Treas. ; T. Logan, Senior Beadle ; C. Flatt, Junior
Beadle ; A. J. Stevens, Secretary ; J. Gillispie, Sub-Secretary ; H. Waddington,
P.C.R; J. Shaw, J. H. Adams, W. Bamford, Trustees; W. Harris, A. Brown,
J. Gillispie, Auditors ; W. T. Harris, M.D., Medical Officer.
Brantford Lodge No. 71, A.O. U. JF., was organized in June, 1880, with twenty-
three members and the following officers : Adam Spence, Master Workman ;
W. Wisner, P.M.W. ; Thomas Elliott, Foreman ; Edward Brophey, Overseer ;
Thomas Spence, Guide ; Frank Grobb, Secretary ; W. T. Harris, Medical Exa-
miner ; Edward L Gould, Receiver ; W. H. Shapley, Financier. The lodge
now numbers fifty-nine members, and meets at the comer of Queeu and Col-
borne Streets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. The present
officers are : Thomas Elliott, M. W. ; Job VanFleet, RM.W. ; Thomas Goode, F. ;
Wm. Earon, Overseer ; Frank Grobb, Sec'y ; W. T. Harris, Med. Ex. ; Alfred
Cox, F. ; Wm. Beer, Receiver.
Tutela Council No, 487 Boyal Arcanum, was organized June 1st, 1880,
under a dispensation from the Supreme Council Its charter was granted in
June, 1881, and bears the names of Joshua T. Johnston, P. G. Walsh, W. E.
Walsh, N. T. Hunter, A; J. Stewart., Richard Forde, T. W. Holme, E. P. Para,
George Skimin, W. W. Buckwell, Thomas Ausebrook, James Pollock, R Hart,
R. R NichoUs and D. Taylor. The first officers were : Joshua T. Johuston,
Rejjent ; N. H Hunter, Vice-Regent ; E. Para, Orator ; P. G. Walsh, Past Re-
gent ; T. W. Holme, Secretary ; R Forde, Collector; J. Pollock, Treasurer ; R
Hardy, Chaplain; A J. Stewart, Guide ; R Nicholls, Warden; D Taylor, Sentry.
The present officers are : Regent, Jas. N. Peer ; Vice-Regent, Dr. E Hart ; Ora-
tor, Ed. Denton ; Past Regent, W. C. Hately ; Secretary, J. W. Holme ; Col-
lector, P. G. Walsh ; Treasurer, Jas. Pollock : Chaplain, J. M. Aikmau ; Guide,
David Taylor ; Warden, W. W. Buckwell ; Sentry, W. D. Tye ; Trustees, Dr. R
Hart, Thos. Ausebrooke, W. R Walsh ; Medical Examiner, D. Leslie Philip, M.D.
The subjoined sketch of this popular order is given as a contribution to the
history of the social and mutual aid combinations of modern times: "The
Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum was organized in Boston, Mass.,
LOCAL HISTORY. 305
June 23rd, 1877, and incorporated under the General Laws of Massachusetts
Nov. «5th of that year. The First Annual Session was h«ld in Boston, April
23rd to 26th, 1878, the body being composed of the incorporators, together with
representatives admitted from Grand Councils of Massachusetts, Ohio and
Michigan. At that session there were reported 82 Councils scattered over a
lai^e portion of the United States and part of Canada, with a total membership
of about 3,000, domposed of the vcrv best class of gentlemen. Three deaths
had occurred, and a full benefit paid on each, necessitating three assessments.
During the following fiscal year the number of Councils was increased to 308,
and the membership to 10,500, located in 23 States and 3 Canadian Provinces.
Grand Councils were instituted in New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, 30
deaths reported, and 7 assessments called. The Third Annual Session was held
in Detroit, Mich., April 27th to May 3rd, 1880. During the year then ended
Grand Councils were formed in Indiana, Illinois, Virginia, Mar}'land, Tennessee
and Georgia, the number of Councils was increased to 470, and the membership
to 20,500 ; 61 deaths were reported, and 6 assessments called. At the Fourth
Annual Session, held in Cincinnati, O., April 26th, 1881, there were reported
572 Councils, with a membership of 28,011 located in 26 States, the Canadian
Provinces, and tbe District of Columbia. The Fifth Annual Session was held in
Baltimore, April 25th to May 2nd, 1882, when there were reported 664 Coun-
cils, with 35,000 members. The average membership for the year was 30,617,
and the average death rate was 5.45 per thousand. At the present time there
are 710 Councils, having 39,000 members. Since organization June 23rd, 1877,
there have been 526 deaths, on each of which the full amount of the benefit
has been paid, aggregating upwards of one^and a half millions of dollars dis-
bursed to the dependants of deceased members, and but 39 assessments have
thus far been called, an average of less than eight per year. The operations of
the Order are restricted by law to territory in the United States and Canada
which is free from epidemics, the States of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and
Georgia, being excluded from its benefits on that account."
Beaver Lodge No, 33, Fi'oteatarU Association of 'Prentice Boys of B.N. A, — This
lodge was instituted on the 1st of July, 1878, by a delegation of brethren
from Union Lodge, No. 5, of Hamilton, Ont. These were Brothers William
Peebles, — Wilson, — Stearns, and some others, among whom was Brother
Colling, of Simcoe. The original members were John Qlennon, Henry Hunt,
John Copeland, Arthur S. Irwin, Thomas Ballentine and James Sim. The
first officers chosen appear to have been as follows : John Glennon, W.M.; A.
S. Irwin, D.M.; W. S. House, Secretary ; Wm. K Kerr, Treasurer ; H. Hunt,
D.C.; 6. F. Buckham, Chaplain. The last election held by this body resulted
in the subjoined list of officers : Jas McDowell, W.M ; J as Hazel, D.M.; W. S.
House, Sec.; W. J. Taylor, Treas.; Wm. Davison, D.C.; A. J. Cromar, Chaplain.
The Bev. J. A. Coombs was a member of this lodge during his residence in
Brantf ord, and took great interest in its affairs. After a short but pleasant career,
this lodge became so reduced in numbers by the removal of many of its mem-
bers to distant towns, that It was deemed inexpedient to try to continue its
maintenance ; accordingly, on the 28th of April, 1882, the warrant was formally
surrendered to the Grand Lodge, and it ceased to exist.
306 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Z. 0. L. No. 197, Brantford, was organized by Henry Lemmon, County Master,
in 1868. The following are the present officers. Joseph McLean, W. M. ; A.
J. Cromar, D. M. ; Thomas Glover, Chap. ; Wm. Taylor, Sec'y ; John Savage,
Treas. ; Wm. Campbell, Sen. Com. ; A. J. Cromar, L P. M. The lodge meets
in the Stewart Block, George Street, on the first and third Tuesdays in each
month.
Tits Grarid Royal Black Chapter, Ireland, was organized in 1866, and re-
organized in 1878. The original or charter members were : John McKay, Master
A M. ; James Wade, Deputy Master I. A ; Robert Stevens, Registrar J. J. ;
Thomas Minnes, Pursuivant E. D. This lodge is in a fiouTishing condition,
and meets in the Stewart Block, George Street.
The Grand Officers of the L. O. L. in 1868 were : John Hilliard Cameron,
Grand Master and Sovereign ; John Cojme, Provincial G. M. ; Henry B. Ostler,
G. Chap. ; Thomas Keys, G. SecV ; James H. Bessey, G. Treas.
Ttm^ance OrganiJiion.-K Temperunce Oi^ni^tion existed previous to
1836, and held its meetings in the old school and meeting house that then
stood on the Market Square, close to where the City Hall now stands. Promi-
nent among " Temperance " advocates in those days were Tupper Keep Van-
Brocklin and others, and some very amusing incidents have been related in
connection with their temperance lectures. It may be added that fifty years
ago, and for some time later, to become a member of the Brantford Temperance
Organization did nut prohibit the subject from indulging plentifully in beer
and wine.
The Grand River Division, No. 68, Sons of Temperance, was organized in
1870, with the following members: James J. Hargrave, William Grant, George
Varey, J. J. Inglis, James Tutt, Hy. Creery, Andrew Hudson, Andrew N.
Ogilvie, Samuel Morphy, Stephen B. Medley, M. E. Welding and C^harles
Walker. The division is still existing, and is in a prosperous condition. The
regular meetings of the lodge are held in Stewart Block, on George Street.
The Woman 8 Christian TemperaTice Union was organized on the 21st of
March, 1876, at a meeting which was held in Wycliffe Hall, and which was
presided over by Mrs. Yeomans. Mrs. S. J. Jones was chosen President ; Mrs.
Charles Powley, 1st Vice-President ; Mrs. W. E. Welding, 2nd Vice-President ;
Miss. B. Lightbody, Secretary ; Mrs. Langford, Treasurer. The following pledge
was adopted as expressing the object and spirit of those who signed it : " We,
the undersigned women, hereby severally pledge ourselves, in integrity and
honour before God, to abstain from the use of and from traffic in all intoxi-
cating liquors as a beverage, and that we will not ofier the same to others to
be so used ; and we further solemnly covenant before God, henceforth to work
and pray for the suppression of intemperance as a sin against God and man,
and that in our work we will use such means, and forward such measures, as
God shall direct through the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer." Much moral
strength was attained by this banding together of Christian women, and,
though comparatively silent in their earnest labours, great good has been
accomplished by way of watchfulness and warning to those who were in danger.
The present officers of the Union are : Mrs. H. W. Brethour, President ; Mrs.
Alfred Watts, 1st Vice-President; Mrs. Thomas White, 2nd.. Vice -President;
Mrs George Dempster, Secretary ; Mrs. Charles Powley, Treasurer.
LOCAL HISTORY. 307
St George's Society. — To have to say that no such beneficent society as this
exists at the ppesent day in a community in which the English element so
lai^ely preponderates, is a source of regret Such, however, has existed in
Brantfonl from time to time, but allowed, through lack of enthusiasm, to lapse
into the list of the things that were. The first St. George's Society was
ort^nized at the Kerby House on the evening of the 24th Februar}% 1859. The
following were the officers : R. R Bown, President ; Thos. Botham, Vice-
President ; — Low, Financial Secretary ; E. R. Dewhurst, Cor. Secretary ;
Charles Watts, Treasurer.
2Tu Farringdon Debating Society was originally organized on the 9th day of
October, 1861, in connection with Farringdon Independent Church. The first
meeting was held in the rooms adjoining that church, which is situated at
Tutelar Heights, adjacent to the City of Brantford. Meetings were held at that
place for some years. The objects of the society were mutual improvement
in literature, and to cultivate the art of public speaking. The first President
of the society was H. B. Leeming, Rsq., now Collector of Customs at this port
The first Secretary, Wm. Paterson, Esq., now M.P. for South Brant ; Treasurer,
Thomas Brooks, now President of S.B.A.S. The total membership consisted
of 21 members, many of whom are at present occupying honourable and respon-
sible positions in different parts of the Dominion. Among the past Presidents
of the society m^ht be mentioned the following names: Messrs. W. F.
Cockshutt, L. F. Heyd, Robei-t Leeming and S. M. Thompson. The officers
for the present year are as follows : President, James Harley, Esq. ; Vice-
President, John Thompson, Esq. ; Secretary, A. H. Elliott, Esq. ; Treasurer, T.
M. Harris, Elsq. The society changed its place of meeting in the year 1875 to
the rooms at present occupied in the Cockshutt Block. Shortly after its
removal to said rooms it adopted the mode of procedure followed by the
Dominion House of Commons. In order to increase its field of discussion it
arrogated to itself the right of debating Imperial and Provincial as well as
Dominion questions. This society was probably the first in the Dominion
to adopt the Parliamentary form of debate, and experience has proved this
successful beyond the most sanguine expectation of its founders. At the
opening of each Session the Governor-General, or his deputy, accompanied
by his suite, goes down to the House and opens the proceedings with due
form and ceremony by reading an appropriate speech from the Throne. On
these occasions it is customary for members of the Government and leading
members of the Opposition to appear in Windsor uniform, all ordinary mem-
bers in full dress. The usual dignitaries of the House are represented in
full force. The ladies' gallery is well filled, and its graceful occupants evince
much interest in the proceedings, while the intellectual dignity of the House
is increased by the presence of the civic, judicial, and ecclesiastical function-
aries of the Dominion. The principal bills of the Session are foreshadowed
in the speech from the Throne, and have at various times comprised national,
educational, commercial, and social reforms. Officers of the House for the
present Session are : Speaker, J. H. McLean, Esq. ; Clerk, W. D. Shannon, Esq. ;
Premier, W. 6. Raymond, Esq., member for Winnipeg, while the Right Hon.
Jno. Thompson, member for Victoria, B.C., leads her Majesty's loyal Opposi-
tion. Fifty-one members have seats on the floor of the House, many of whom
308 mSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
have already proved themselves to be possessed of more than ordinary debatiQ^
ability, and well skilled in Parliamentary usage.
The Brantford Caledonian Society was first instituted in Brantford by the
efforts of Capt J. J. Inglis, an old citizen, and several other gentlemen in the
autumn of 1878. The newspapers at that time intimated that steps were being
taken to form such a society in the city and county, and at the request of a
number of gentlemen who had subscribed themselves to become members of
the organization, a special meeting was called in^the Kerby House Parlour on
the evening of Octol^er 31st, 1878 — Hallowe'en. Mr. John Paterson was
elected Secretary ^o tern., and a special meeting was arranged to be held in the
same place on December 27th, 1878, to elect officers and transact other business.
Accordingly a number of gentlemen were present, and the following officers
were elected : Patron, The Eight Honourable the Most Noble the Marquis of
Lome, KT., G.C.M.G., Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada ; Chief,
Wm. Paterson, M.P. ; 1st Chieftain, Allan Cleghom ; 2nd Chieftain, Charles
Milne ; Secretary, J. H. McLean ; Assistant Secretary, John Paterson ; Treas-
urer, Robert Lindsay ; Piper, Donald Mclntyre ; Chaplain, Rev. Wm. Coch-
rane, D.D. ; General Committee, H. C. Montgomery, Capt J. J. Inglis, W.
Harvey, P. McCauley, Jno. Shaw, A. Campbell, D. Webster. D. Mclntyre, P.
Robertson, G. Ritchie, R A. Watt, Jas. Allan. At this meeting a constitution
and by-laws were adopted ; also a badge of appropriate national character, a
description of which is given at the end of this article. The object and nature
of the society is well set forth b}' the following extracts from the constitution :
Article I., section 1, says: ** This society shall be called the ' Caledonian Society
of the City of Brantford,' and shall have for its object the encouragement of
the national costume and games, the ciiltivation of a taste for Scotch music,
history and poetry, and the uniting more closely of Scotchmen and those of
Scottish descent" Article V., section 1, says : " The annual
gathering for the celebration of games shall be held during the month of May.
The games shall be celebrated according to the rules of the North American
Caledonian Association. Some of the games, or all of them, may be thrown
open, under certain restrictions, to non-members." Section 2. "The badge of the
society shall consist of the crest of the society in silver, suspended from or
inserted in a losette of silk ribbon of Campbell tartan." Section 3. *' At all
processions, festivals and gatherings, the members shall wear the badge of the
society displayed on the left breast."
In the spring of 1879 a set of bagpipes was imported from Scotland. This
instrument was selected by Mr. Duncan McKay, piper to the Earl of Breadal-
bane, Taymouth Castle, Aberfeldy, Perth House. On the 1st of July, 1879, a
deputation from this society was sent to witness and take part in the annual
games of the St. Catharines' Society. The 31st of October of this year was
marked by an entertainment given in Wycliffe Hall, at which Professors D.
C. and A. M. Bell gave selected readings ; '* Ta Gran Hielan Bagpipes " elicited
great applause. In^ugust of this year Captain Inglis was sent to represent
the society in the Convention of North America, which was held at Montreal
The Bums Anniversary was celebrated by a dinner given under the auspices
of this Society at " Woodbine " Hotel, on January 25th, 1880. Wm. Pateraoo,
M.P., presided ; there were over one hundred people present^ and the affidr
•^^.-<,*-*/l<_^
LOCAL HISTORY. 311
was a highly pleasurable one to all concerned. The present officers o( the
Society are as follows : Chief, Capt. J. J. Inglis ; 1st Chieftain, H. C. Mont-
^mery ; 2nd Chieftain, Alex. Stewart ; Secretary, J. H. McLean ; Trectsurer,
Bobt. Lindsay ; Assistant Secretary, A. O. Gill ; Standard Bearers, R. McGregor,
F. McCallum ; Auditors, H. Wylie, J. F. Grant ; General Committee, Alex.
Duncan, H. Wylie, D. McBain, A. Trotter, T. Terris, R 0. Tuttle, F. McCallum,
J. F. Grant, R. McGregor.
77ie Brantford Curling Club. — On the 3rd of January, 1879, a number of
gentlemen who are lovers of the " roarin' game," assembled at the Kerby
House, in the City of Brantford, and organized themselves into a body with the
above title by electing the following officers : Wm. Paterson, M.P., Patron ;
Allen Cleghom, President ; John H. Stratford, Ist Vice-President ; Thomas
McLean, 2nd Vice-President ; W. Mahaffie, Secretary ; Wm. Watt, Jr., Treas-
urer ; Rev. pt Starr, Chaplain ; who were associated with the subjoined as
composing the original membership of the club: G. P. Buchanan, Robert
Henry, John Tainsh, J. Y. Morton, John Bishop, H. McK. Wilson. The club
was mainly instrumental in the erection of the fine brick Curling and Skating
Rink on Darling Street, in 1880, and during the year 1882 the members
erected the ** Victoria Curling and Skating Rink" on the south bank of the
Grand River Canal. This propert)' comprises nearly one acre, and in addition
to the commodious covered rink, there is a large outside skating rink of over
half an acre. The club is a member of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club
(Ontario Branch), and won the District Medal of that club for 1881, in com-
petition with the Point Edward Curling Club.
Victoria Curling and Skating ^infc.— This popular resort was opened to the
public and its patrons in the autumn of 1882,.aQd during the amusement season
that followed, which was decidedly favourable by reason of the continued cold
of the winter of 1882-3, it at once became one of the favourite places for wWith
sport in the city. The subjoined is from a local paper of Nov., 1882 : " inter
the marked growth of the city grow the resorts for amusement and recreation,
and with this idea a number of gentlemen, principally curlers, conceived the
idea of another curling and skating rink. A company was formed, stock sub-
scribed, a contract let, and now upon the south bank of the canal stands a com-
modious, light and well ventilated rink. The building is 154x72 feet, and in
the centre 26 feet high ; near the door are three separate dressing rooms, which
will be well heated; the building is supplied with gas, and the light from 11
gasaliers will furnish abundant light The centre of the rink, 36 feet wide,
vdll be devoted to skaters alone, while the sides, 18 feet wide, will be used by
curlers, except on carnival nights, when the whole will be thrown open to
skaters. Three large ventilators have been placed in the roof, and health
studied as well as capacity. The building opens at the south end upon a large
open rink, 210x138 feet, which has been enclosed by a neat tight board fence,
and which in fine weather will be no doubt used to a very great extent The
building and fences cost Sl,925, and the whole sum expended in building, land,
etc, will reach $3,000. A four-inch pipe is laid in from the canal, and by
dmply drawing a lever the whole rink can be flooded in a very few minutes.
The contract was given to Mr. A. Grantham, and has been performed in a very
workmanlike manner, creditable alike to the company and the contractor.*'
This rink is devoted mainly to the game of curling.
19
312 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
Brant Lacrosse Clvh. — Of the many a&iociations for recreation and pleasure
which have a home in Brantford, none probably have contributed more to
her fame than the " Lacrosse Club." Composed of young men of mature and
well developed physical constitutions and cultivated tastes, who possessed a
keen appreciation of the advantages which the game affords as a medimn
through which to gun both exercise and amusement, it is not surprising that
the club should have won not only the favourable opinions of those abroad,
but the hearty support and confidence of the best citizens at home. The
present organization had its origin in a body formerly known as the " Touog
Canadians," which was formed in 1870, and contained the following named
gentlemen among its prominent players the first season : Robert Welsh, Presi-
dent ; Charles Waterous, Vice-President ; Horace Hate, Secretary ; John Lewis,
Treasurer ; R, M. Orchard, Captain ; James Watt, Charles Stratford. R. W.
Bennett, W. Walsh, G. F. Sproule, J. Harrington and Joseph Craig. This
opening campaign of the new club was sufficient to demonstrate its value as a
party of successful lacrossemen, for out of five matches they were fortunate
enough to win four. The season of 1871 found the club again in the field,
where it made a clean sweep by winning every one of the ten match games in
which it took part during the campaign. About this time the general interest
ia the game of lacrosse declined, so that but few clubs in the country remained
intact. The Young Canadians, however, turned their attention to cricket
playing, and thus preserved their organization until February, 1877, when they
resumed their former practice, and became known as the Brant Lacrosse Club,
with the following as officers and members : W. A. Wilkes, President ; Frank
Howell, Vice-President ; J. A. Wallace, Secretary and Treasurer ; E. M. Orchard,
Field Captain ; J. H. Simmons, R. M. Oopeland, H. Carroll, R A, Watt. For
1S82: John Workman, President ; H. C. Montgomery, Vice-President; A, T.
Stewart, Secretary ; E. Hart, Treasurer ; R. M. Orchard, Field Captain. The
members of the Brant Lacrosse Club have been highly successful in their career
as sportsmen, as appears from the subjoined record of their work for a period
of SIX consecutive years :
877 . . 6 matches.
5 won.
1 lost.
878 ... 7 '■
. 6 " .
2 "
9 "
2 "
7 " .
. 3 •■
13 "
2 ■■
46 " 11 "
have died, although many of them are absent
i duties of life, while three retain their active
from the list of officers, Mr. R M. Orchard has
)tain from the first, and to him is awarded much
roficiency which the club has attained. Uessrs.
s have also been continuously active since the
: " Brants " now hold the National Association
LOCAL HISTORY. 313
Medal for the championship of southern Ontario. In 1881, they won the
chani|tionship of western Ontario without a single defeat; this trophy is a
beautiful Silver Cup, and is highly prized by the members and their patrons.
In the autumn of 1880 they sent a "team'' to Detroit, Michigan, where they
won two matches out of three. The next season the team took a trip to Mont-
real, stopping by the way to engage with the clabs at Cobourg and Kingston.
At the latter places they were easily victorious, but were defeated by the
Montreal men. By steady attention and harmonious good management this
local body of players has arisen from the status of a fourth rate rural club to
that of an " A No. 1 " group of sportsmen, who are second to none in the
Dominion of Canada, save the champions at Montreal and Toronto.
The Brwntford Golf Club. — ^There is perhaps less known of this very
ancient pastime than any other of the many athletic spoits which receive
attention in these modem times. Something concerning its history may be
gleaned from the following extract from the sporting columns of the Toronto
Kail : " It may be new, and of some interest to lovers of golf, now deservedly
becoming popular, to know that in the reign of James I. of Scotland, the
' game ' was put down by Act of Parliament, in 1424, in order, it was said, ' to
eucourage the shooting at the butts with bow and arquebuse.' So far as we
know this Act stands unrepealed at the present day, although, like the game
itself, it is somewhat ancient " The original home of this game was Scotland,
whence so many of the sports of nowadays have been derived ; no wonder
then that the sous of that well remembered land should seek to preserve from
oblivion the amusements and frolics which their fathers loved Brantford Golf
Club has the honour of having been the first one organized in Ontario. This
was accomplished iu the year 1879, under the leadership of Alexander Robertson,
Esq., with whom were associated several other well known prominent gentle-
men. The subjoined exhibit shows the personnel of the club as at first omtn-
ized : Alexander Robertson, Captain ; W. Lindsay Creighton, Secretary ; John
W. Stratford, Treasurer; George H. Wilkes, James K. Osborne, James Y.
Morton, Alfred J. Wilkes, members of Council ; Hon. A S. Haniy, T. Lord
Whitehead, S. W. McMichael, Theo. J. Wilkes, James K Lees, James W. Digby,
MD.. G. Charles Patton, John Clay, Jr. The list of officers remains unchanged
to this date. The grounds (technically called the " links ") belonging to Uiis
club are beautifully situated along a crest of hills which overlook the City of
Brantford, and are justly acknowledged to be the finest of the kind in the
Dominion. Besides this local organization there are clubs in Toronto, Niagara,
Montreal and Quebec, with a growing tendency to inaugurate others in several
of the principal cities and towns. As stated elsewhere, this particular game
is little known among the people ; as its features and advantages become un-
folded by these pioneer clubs, it is believed that it will become one of the most
popular means of promoting out-door exercise and amusement
Hie Brantford Horticultural Society, — ^The society as it now exists was
organized in the year 1868, under the Act authorizing the formation of such
societies, and providing certain benefits to accrue to the organizations so formed.
Previous to this, as early as about the year 1852, a society was organized,
largely through the instrumentality of the elder Dr. Digby and the late A. B.
Bennett. Mr. Bennett was an enthusiastic horticulturist and the prime mover
314 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
in the organization of the society, in which he remained an active and efficient
member for many years* The society held meetings at stated intervals, usually
in September of each year, the place of meeting being for a long time Young's
Hotel on the south side of Colborne Street. Subsequently two meetings were
held each year, in the last of June and first of September, and still later in the
first part of July and in September. Since the reorganization in 1868, the
annual meetings are held on the second Thursday of January, and other meet-
ings are held on the call of the president or secretary. The society makes no
ostentatious display, but holds its meetings quietly, and pursues the even tenor
of its way without any endeavour to attract public attention. The meetings
are well attended and interesting to a marked degree. Prizes are given for the
best display, and the collections of fruits, flowers, Ac, are usually very fine.
The present board of officers consists of the following named gentlemen:
Eobert Russell, President ; J. S. Hamilton, Vice-President ; J. B. Hay, Secre-
tary ; and E. C. Passmore. There are now about fifty members enrolledL
The Grand Trwiik R, R, Literary Association and Library. — This associa-
tion may be said to have had its conception some ten years ago in the estab-
lishment of a circulating library, reading-room and dramatic company. The
latter institution commenced with from fifteen to twenty members, who dis-
solved on the opening of Stratford's Opera House in 1881. The circulating
library boasts of about 1,200 volumes, while the reading-room is supplied with
nine daily and several weekly newspapers, general, scientific, agricultural and
humorous. There are also hot and cold baths in connection with the reading-
room ; in fact, everything that might militate to the comfort and intelligence
of the large body of artisans employed at the Grand Trunk Works. The
library, reading-room and baths are in a large building in the yard to the rear
of the present 6. T. R Station.
The Grand Trunk R, R, Fire Brigade was organized in 1876 with a strength
of thirty members, and has the same number at the present time. The brigade
has a fire engine, but its services are hardly ever required, as there are powerful
hydrants placed all over the yard convenient to the several workshops and other
buildings. The men are drilled from time to time in the handling of the
hydrants, hose, &c., and have proved themselves an efficient body. The present
officers are : John Kerr, Captain ; James Coyle, 1st Lieuteuant ; Maxwell Craig>
2nd Lieutenant ; John Savage, Secretary.
Grand Trunk Band. — This excellent band, which numbers, under the leader-
ship of R Quilly, some twenty pieces, both brass and reed instruments, is the
outgrowth of the enterprise of one " Tom " Patersou, at one time foreman of
the locomotive works of the 6. T. R. in this city. It was the occasion of the
visit to Brantford of Mr. C. J. Brydges, Greneral Manager, previous to the pur-
chase of the Bufifalo and Lake Huron line by the Grand Trunk RR Company.
" Tom,'' fully realizing the immense importance of such an event, had mus-
tered a big drum and one or two brass instruments, which he forthwith drilled
day and night in the soul-stirring strains of " Rule Britannia." On Mr. Brydges*
arrival at the station this band gave him a gush of '* Rule Britannia,*' and
wherever he betook himself the remorseless, unrelenting drum and collaterals^
close at his heels, ceased not, till refreshments were happily suggested, to remind
him in agonizing strains that ** Britons never shall b^ slaves." The band ia
now allowed to be one of the finest, of its strength, in the Province.
LOCAL HISTORY. 315
Stratfords Opera House Orchestra, — ^This orchestra, which was otganized
August, 1882, under the conductorship of R B. Wimperis, is acknowledged to be
one of the best west of Toronto. The instruments are : Ist violin, B. R Wim-
peris ; 2nd violin, W. West ; pianoforte, Mrs. Wimperis ; double bass, Frank
Schlonpka ; flute, W. Edwards ; Cornet, Gillespie ; and trombone, D. Cal-
lahan.
The Ihiffervn Rifles^ Band was reorganized from local musicians in June,
1882. It has a numerical strength of twenty-one members, with B. R Wim-
peris as leader, and is in all respects equal in organization and discipline to a
full military band, and stands second to few iu the Province.
Brantfard Toung MerCs Christian Association, — The comer btone of the
handsome edifice for the Young Men's Christian Association of Brantford, was
laid at noon, July 1, 1874, with appropriate and imposing ceremonies. The
day was all that could be desired, and the attendance proportionately large.
Occupying more or less prominent positions on the platform erected for the
occasion were observed W. Wilkinson, Esq., President of the Association, who
presided; W. P. Crombie, Secretary; Dr. Nichol, Vice-President; Ignatius
Cockshutt, Esq. ; Wm. Paterson, Esq., M.P. ; A. S. Hardy, Esq., M.P.P. ;
Mayor Matthews, Rev. John Wood, Bev. John Alexander, Bev. Wm. Coch-
rane, M.A; Bev. W. H. Porter, M.A. ; Bev. B. B. Keefer, and Messrs. Alfred
Watts, Geo. Foster, D. B. Blackader, James Mills, Thomas McLean, T. S. Shen-
ston, James Wilkes, Geo. Watt, W. E. Welding, Wm. Buck. Wm. Mclutosh,
James Ker, H. B. Leeming, and the leading business men of the town. The
exercises were begun by singing the following appropriate lines, composed for
the occasion by the Bev. Mr. Wood, Mr. Tutt presiding at the organ, and Mr.
Hamlyn acting as chorister :
** Heftd of the Chnroh, to Thee we bow.
Oar Savioar and oar Matter Thoo,
Behold and bleae oar deed tiiis day.
While in Thy name this stone we lay.
Type of that precioos Corner-stone
Which God shall boild His Charoh npon.
May this we lay Thy token be
Of strength, and peace, and unity !
To Thee we trace each good desi^,
The praise and glory all be Thine !
Accept Thine own^ oar cause maintain,
For without Thee we baild in vain.
Bring Thou the topstone forth with joy,
Then own the efforts we employ
To save the voong from Satan s sway.
And lure them to Thy heavenly way."
Rev* Mr. Porter then read the scriptures, the passages selected being 8th
chapter of Proverbs, and portions of the 28th chapter of Isaiah and 22nd
chapter of Revelation, and the Rev. Mr. Alexander offered up the dedicatory
prayer. The Treasurer, Mr. D. R Blackader, then read the following historical
statement of the association from its establishment in 1859 to the present
date:
316 HiSTOKY OF BRAKT COUSTT.
The first Yoang Men's Chiistiiaa Aswci&tion of Braatford was or^nized at
ameetiog held in the basemeDtof ZJon Cburch, on Monday, the 19th of April,
1860. The following were the officers of the association : President, Judge
Jones ; Vice-Presidents, Messrs. H. Cox, G. Foster, £ G. Passmore, and James
Woods ; Treasurer, Mr. T. S. Shenston ; and Secretary, Mr. James T. Boyd. A
room was rented in Mr. James Moore's building on the south side of Colbome
Street to be used for their meetings and as a reEwling-room, A Sabbath school
was conducted by its members in West Brantford, and the work of tract dis-
tribution and cottage prayer meetings was carried on. This association was
kept up for about three years, when, owing to the removal of some of its acti%"e
members and other causes, il was for the time given up. At a meeting held in
the Congregational Church, in November, 1868, the sut>ject of reorganizing the
assodation was discussed, and at an adjourned meeting, held in Zion Church on
the 16th December, it was formally ortjanized, and a constitution and by-laws
adopted. A suitable room was engaged on Market Street, opposite the Klarket,
and at the first regular meeting, held there on the 28th of December, the
following officers were elected : President, Mr. G. R. VanXorman ; Vice-Presii-
dent, Mr. George Foster ; Secretary, B. W. Craig ; Treasurer, C. B. Moore ; and
Librariau, & Tapsoott The regular meetings of the association were held
weekly during the winter months and monthly during the summer ; the exer-
cises, in addition to the regular business, consisting of essays, debates, &c
During the winter mouths of each year a course of lectures was given under
the auspices of the association. The reading-room was well supplied with
the leading papers and magazines, and kept open from 8 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. At
the first anuiuil meeting held in November, IStiSl, Mr, VanNorman was re-
elected President, holding that office for two years, when he resigned, and Mr.
C. B. Moore was chosen. At the meeting in November. 1871, the Rev. G. H.
Bridgman was elected ; but being removed from the town in June, the duties
again devolved on Mr. Moore, the Ist Vice-President, till the meeting in Novem-
ber, 1872, when he was succeeded by Mr. W. Wilkinson, who still holds office.
In June, 1870, the first cottage prayer meetings in connection with the asso-
ciation were organized, and a Sabbath afternoon prayer meeting held in the
rooms. In October, 1872, the assodation removed to its present rooms on the
south side of Colhome Street, in Mr. Cockshutt's new block. During the year
the reading room, which had been nominally re.served for the use of the mem-
bers and strangers visiting the town, was thrown open free to all. From this
time the meetings of the association were held we^ly all the year round on
Monday evening. Reunions, the entertainment of which consisted of readings,
addresses and music, were commenced. The temperance work was taken up
and meetings held in the ward school houses and in the Town Hall. A Sabbatb
evening service was also held for the winter in the King's Ward school house,
— J..-..J i._ iv- —embers. During the month of August, 187S, a Young
aing service was commenced in the rooms ; but as the
the Town Hall was kindly granted for the purpose. This
ine of the best meetings of the association. lu the winter
1 the Sunday evening was begun in the Village of New-
tended. During August of la-it year our association was
, Secretary of the Toronto Association, and Mr. Morse, of
LOCAL HISTORY. 317
the Elxecutive Committee of the Association of the United States and Canada,
who strongly urged the necessity of a general secretary for our work. The
appeal for the necessaiy funds was promptly responded to by the friends of the
association, and Mr. W. P. Crombie, our present Secretary, engaged. The
annual meeting in November, held in the Baptist Tabernacle, was a large and
enthusiastic gathering. Towards the close it was announced that Mr. Cock-
shutt was willing to give $2,0U0 towards a building fund, provided other $4,000
could be raised ; other friends of the association came forward with subscrip-
tions, and before the close it was announced that $7,000 had been subscribed.
This amount was increased during the next few days to over $12,000. The
ladies of the town also kindly came to our assistance, and raised funds by
bazaar to furnish the building. A Building Committee, consisting of tw« mem-
bers from each denomination, was appointed to select a suitable site and go on
with the work. After carefully examining a number of suitable places, Lot
No. 23 on the south side of Colborne Street, opposite the Market, was selected.
Suitable plans having been procured, the work was commenced on the 18th
May. An Act of Incorporation was obtained for the association on the first
day of April, 1874 The corner stone was laid by Ignatius Cockshutt, Esq., on the
first day of July, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, in the year of our Lord, 1874,
in the 38th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria; His Excellency the
Right Honourable the Earl of Dufferiu, K.P., K.C.B., being Governor-General of
Canada ; the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie* being Premier of the Dominion ; Hon.
John Crawford being Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario; and Hon. Oliver Mowat
being Premier of Ontario ; Wm. Paterson, Esq., being member of the House of
Commons of Canada ; and A. S. Hardy, Esq., being member of the House of
Assembly for South Brant ; and Wm. Mathews, Esq., being Mayor of the Town
of Brantford.
The large assemblage then joined in singing the hymn —
" Builder of mighty worlds on worlds,
How poor the house must be
That with onr human, sinful hands
We may erect for Thee."
Mr. Wilkinson then introduced the special work of the day in a few appro-
priate remarks This building was intended for no sect,
but for all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ. It was erected by the contribu-
tions of young and old — the widow's mite and the larger offering of the
wealthier citizen had been alike generously ofTered. He called upon all present
to have some part in the completion of the building
Mr. Wilkinson then called Mr. Cockshutt to the platform, and presented him
with an elegant silver trowel, expressing the hope that many wealthy men like
Mr. Cockshutt might disburse their means, while living, towards such good
objects as the present. The trowel bore the following inscription :
" Presented to Ignatius Cockshutt, Esq.,
On the occasion of his laying the foundation stone of the Young Men s
Christian Association Buildings.
Brantford, July 1st, 1874."
318 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
Mr. I. Cockshntt then proceeded to lay the stone in the usual form, during
which a photograph of the scene was taken by Messrs. Campbell & Smith. In
the stone were deposited, in addition to the historical statement given above,
lists of the officers and committees of the T. M. C. A. for 1874, the names of
the Building Committee, Architects. Superintendent of Works, County Judge
and Officials, Ministers of the town, &c., and copies of the Globe, Mail, Expo-
sitor, Courier, Brant Union, Montreal Witness, and denominational papers, with
the coins of the realm. Mr. Cockshutt having returned to the platform, then
addressed the assembly Mr. Bamfather then sang
" Fair Canada," after which Mr. Wilkinson introduced the Rev. Mr. Wood,
remarking how sorry the association were at the prospect of his leaving town.
The next speaker was Mr. Cochrane Mayor Mathews
then addressed the assembly in a few words, expressing his great pleasure at
being present on such an interesting occasion. The erection of such a building
was creditable to the association and to this the largest town in the Dominion.
W. Paterson, Esq., M.P., having been next called upon, in his usual happy and
vigorous manner spoke of the auspiciousness of the day and the entire circum-
stances connected with the ceremony. In watm terms he eulogized Mr. Cock-
shutt, who, unlike many rich men, devoted his means while living to the cause
of God. Mr. Clark, the Secretary of the Woodstock
Young Men's Association, then made a few remarks, after which the proceedings
were brought to a close, the audience joining in the National Anthem, and the
Rev. Mr. Porter pronouncing the benediction. In due time the building was
completed and opened to the public for the purposes for which it had been
erected. Below will be found some interesting details and facts concerning
its structure ; also an account of the opening exercises ; both of wliich have
been transcribed from articles found in the issues of the local press which were
published at the time.
Wydiffe Hail, the Y. M. C, A. Biuiiding. — ^As this beautiful structure has
now been brought to completion, we lay before our readers a full description
of what has been appropriately named and is henceforth to be known as
WyclifTe Hall, which for taste, elegance and completeness in all its parts, will
be readily conceded to be not only the finest public building in Brantford,
but one of the finest structures erected by the T. M. C. A. in the Dominion.
The dimensioned of the building are one hundred and ten feet deep by sixty
feet wide. Height three stories, with mansard roof and surmounted by a
dome. The material is white brick, from the yard of Hugh Workman, Esq.
The style of architecture is peculiar, and is very handsome. Entire cost, includ-
ing site, about 822,000. The main entrance leading up to the lecture-room
and down to the gymnasium is fourteen feet wide by forty-eight feet in deptL
The lecture-room is a well-proportioned rectangle sixty-eight by fifty-seven feet,
and, with the gallery which stretches across the entire rear of the room, has a
seating capacity of about nine hundred. The room is chastely finished in
stucco-work, and the walls are decorated, on the right, with the mottoes, ''God
is love," " Christ died for our sins ; " on the left, the association mottoes, " Our
Aim, God's Glory," " Our Strength, God's Grace," " Our Guide, God's Word."
The platform is semicircular, eleven by twenty-four feet, and is to be richly
furnished by the ladies. The ceiling over the platform is vaulted, and is well
LOCAL HISTOR7. 319
adapted for throwing the sound forward to the audience. Directly in the rear
of the platform a door opens into a narrow hall connecting with two anterooms,
and immediately over this door stands in relief the British crown and coat of
arms, above which, in a recnmbent position, are the Cross and Crown, and the
motto, " Stand up for Jesus." Six laige windows flood this hall with light by
day, and at night a magnificent gasalier, with a six-feet reflector and thirty-six
jets, illumines every part of the room. The seats, consisting of comfortable
forms, each adapted for five, were furnished by Mr. John Builder. The plaster-
ing and stucco-work has been done by Messrs. Wood & Fisher, and reflects
creditably upon their taste and ability. At the head of the stairway, to the
right, a door opens into the reading-room, fifty by twenty-one feet. This
connects by folding doors with the lecture-room, and can be made- available as
an auditorium, thus making the seating capacity about one thousand. To the
left of the main entrance is the parlour, a fine room forty-one by twenty-one
feet. Between these two rooms, and directly over the entrance hall is the Sec-
retaiy's room, a square of eighteen feet, in the rear of which is a gorgeous,
stained glass window from the Stained Glass Works, London. This is a present
from a prominent citizen. We now proceed to the third flat, from which the
gallery opens; and upon the right front we enter a room forty-two by twenty-
one feet. This is to be occupied by the Mechanics' Institute. On the left front
is a similar room to be used for evening classes, lecturing and debating purposes.
These are all well adapted to the uses for they were designed. From the third
story, if you are of an aspiring and inquisitive turn of mind, you may ascend
to the dome, where, Charon-like, you survey the entire town and all the country
round about ; but it is advisable to have some Hermes along to whose hand
you may cling. Descending to the first floor, and off the passage leading to the
gymnasium, are two bathrooms. The gymnasium itself is an immense square
of sixty feet. Here it is supposed the great feats of the gymnasts of ancient
Greece and Rome will be enacted anew ; or, possibly, in accordance with the
modem notion, it will be made the theatre for the development of muscular
Christianity. Off this room there are two bathrooms, two closets, a washroom
and a dressing-room ; and in the rear of the gymnasium are the caretaker's
apartmenta There is also a balcony overlooking the gymnasium. The plans
and specifications were furnished, in part, by John Turner and, in part, by
Mellish & Son, architects, of this town. The brickwork was done under the
superintendence of Thos. Broughton, Esq., and the moulding and wood-finishing
by Mr. James Tutt The painting and graining has been done by Mr. John
Tainsh, and is certainly a creditable piece of workmanship. The slating was
done by the Brown Bros., slaters, of this town ; and the iron and tin work by
T. Cowherd & Sons. The front of the first story is to be occupied as stores,
one on either side of the entranca A beautiful stone arch, containing the
words ** Wydifle Hall," spans the doorway. The facade of the building presents
an imposing appearance, containing sixteen large windows, besides six smaller
ones in the attic and four in the dome. Brantford may well be proud of
Wydiffe HalL It is " a thing of beauty," and will doubtless prove a joy to
many for many a day. The T. M. C. A., and especially their indefatigable Sec-
retary, W. P. Crombie, Esq., deserve not only the thanks but the substantial
support of the people of Brantford, and we have no doubt a generous public
320 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
will evince its appreciation of their zeal, and of tho benefits which through
their instrumentality have been confeired upon the town by the erection ot
Wyclitfe Hall
From the Expositor we also take the following account of the opening services :
Last Monday evening this beautiful edifice was tbrmally opened as the home of
the Young Men's Christian Association of Brantford. At an early hour the capta-
cious hall was filled with an appreciative audience of the citizens, together with
a large number of persons from the country round about, and not a few from
Paris, IngersoU, Woodstock, Dundas, Hamilton, Toronto and other places. And
by the time the exercises commenced the gallery and aisles were crammed,
many being obliged to stand. Upon the platform were Wm. Nichol, M.D.,
President of the Association ; Wm. Wilkinson, M. A, Vice-President ; Daniel
Wilson, LL.D.. University College, Toronto ; Rev. A T. Pearson, of Detroit,
Rev. John Wood, of Toronto, formerly of this town ; Rev. B. B. Keefer, Rev.
Wm. Cochrane, M. A., Rev. Canon Salter, Rev. Thomas Lowry, Rev. Mr. Chanre,
Rev. W. H. Porter, M.A., His Honour Judge Jones, Rev. A. Langford, Rev. W.
C. E. McColl, M.A., Rev. J. P. Bell, Rev. H. P.. Cutter, and Messrs. Plewes,
Wilkie, of Toronto, T. S. Shenston, I. Cockshutt, Geo. Foster, and W. Hi C. Kerr,
M.A The opening hymn was a doxology, " Praise God, from whom all bless-
ings flow." This was followed by old " Coronation," the hundreds of voices,
led by the choir, filling the immense hall with the melody of this grand old
hymn, after which the Rev. Mr. Porter read the scriptures, being suitable selec-
tions from different portions of the Word of God. The Rev. John Wood led in
prayer; and that popular hymn, " Hold the Fort, for I am coming," was sung with
tine effect. Then the President made a few brief remarks. I. Cockshutt, Esq.,
Chairman of the Building Committee, was .next introduced. Ho considered it
was a proud day for Brantford, when, by the favour and blessing of God, the
Y. M. C. Association had been permitted to see their fond hopes realized in
the dedication of Wycliffe Hall.
After the singing of a hymn, the President introduced to the audience Daniel
Wilson, LL.D., who, he said, was ever found ready to assist the Y. M. C. A. by
the munificence of a richly-stored mind, and the warmth of a noble Christian
heart, whenever called on. . . . The choir next sang, " Whiter than Snow,"
in which the congregation united. Mr. Kirapton rendered a solo, " Remember
now thy Creator," Miss — Kimpton playing the piano accompaniment. Miss
Glassco sang a solo also, Mr. Harpin presiding at the organ. Both were well
rendered. The Rev. Mr. Pearson followed in a very able and eloquent address.
. . . T. J. Wilkie, Esq., next addressed the meeting. He looked upon the
present building as a token of divine favour, and as an evidence that good
work had been done by the association for the glory of Go<l in the salvation of
souls. After the collection had been taken up, subscriptions were circulated,
during which brief remarks were made by the Rev. Mr. Cochrane, Mr. Plewes
and others ; and it was half-past ten before the audience had dispersed. The
collections and subscriptions amounted to 8004. This sum was perhaps much
less than had been anticipated ; but it must be borne in mind that, apart from
the pressure in commercial matters, within the past year the citizens of Brant-
ford have been called upon for large sums for one object or another. Zion
Church has just completed important changes and improvements internally as
LOCAL HISTORY.
I
321
well as externally. So also of the Primitive Methodist Church. Brant Avenue
people have their hands fully occupied yet in connection with the finishing of
their magnificent church. The First Baptist Church are- just on the eve of
remodelling the present building, besides the further' cost of erecting a new
house of worship in the East Ward. Socials and bazaars for some church or
charity are of almost daily occurrence. When all these things are considered
in relation to the large amount originally subscribed, the result cannot be sur-
prising. The evening was all that could be desired ; so that upon the whole we
think the Young Men's Christian Association of Brantford may be congratulated
upon the successful opening of Wycliffe Hall.
The Dufferin Rifles,— Ry General Order of 28th September, 1866, the Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Forces — the Right Honourable Charles Stanley,
Viscount Monck — was pleased to authorize the formation of the 38th Brant
Battalion of Infantry, with headquarters at Brantford, and composed of the
following independent companies, and numbered as follows :
No.
in
Dmx.
1
Guetted.
Compaoy DedgnaUon.
CompAny
Headquarten.
•
Captain.
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
June 26th, 1856
Dea 13th, 1861
July 3rd, 1862
Jan, 30th, 1863
June 1st, 1866
Aug. 17th, 1866
June 30th, 1863
Rifle Company
No. 1 Rifle Company . .
No. 2 Rifle Co'y (Highland).
Infantry Company .
If
■ •
• •
Paris . .
Brantford.
Brantford.
Mt. Pleasant
Brantford.
Burford. .
Drumbo. .
xindw K Baird
David Curtis.
John J. Inglis.
Crossly Heaton.
Henry Lemmon
Edmund Yeigh.
John Laidlaw.
The Field OflBcers md Staff appointed were : Lieutenant-Colonel, Captain
William Patton, from No. 1 Company, appointed October 12th, 1866 ; Major,
Captain Hiram Dickie, from No. 2 Company, appointed November 30th, 1866 ;
Adjutant, Lieut. S. W. Fear, from No. 4 Company, appointed November 30th,
1866; Assistant Adjutant and Drill Instructor, Ensign David Spence, f rom
• No. 3 Company, appointed April 19th, 1867 ; Paymaster, Capt. William Grant,
from No. 3 Company, appointed November 30th, 1866 ; Quartermaster, Sergt.
B. Felmingham, appointed November 30th, 1866 ; Surgeon, Edwin Theodore
Bown, M.]3., appointed January 25th, 1867; Asst.-Surgeon, Duncan Marquis,
M.D., appointed December 13th, 1867. The Mount Pleasant Company having
been removed from the list of the Volunteer Militia, the remaining companies
of the regiment were, on the 5th January, 1871, renumbered as follows : No.
1 Company, Paris ; No. 2 Company, Brantford ; No. 3 Company, Brantford ;
No. 4 Company, Brantford; No. 5 Company, Burford; No. 6 Company,
Drumbo. On the 24th March, 1871, by General Order, the regiment was
changed from infantry to rifles. By General Order of 3rd July, 1874, and by
special permission of His Lordship the Earl of Du^erin, then Governor-General
of Canada, the regiment was permitted to assume the additional design of
" The Dufferin Rifles." The regiment was one of the first to re-enrol under
322 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the provisions of the Militia Act of 1863. The following have been the com-
manding officers of the regiment since its formation : Lieut-Colonel William
Patton, from 12th October, 1866, to 3rd September, 1875; Lieut-Colonel
Hiram Dickie, from 11th February, 1876, to 28th January, 1881 ; Lieut-CoL
Charles S. Jones, from 3rd June, 1881 (at present commanding).
Since the appointment of Colonel Jones to the command of the regiment, the
headquarters of No. 6 Company have been removed from Drumbo to Brantford,
by General Order of 16th December, 1881 ; the headquarters of No. 1 Company
from Paris to Brantford, by General Order of 15th September, 1882 ; and the
headquarters of No. 5 Company from Burford to Brantford, by General Order
of 11th May, 1883 ; the regiment now being gazetted a " City Battalion," all
the companies have their headquarters in the City of Brantford. The
companies now stand as follows :
No. 1, Headquarters at Brantford, no Captain as yet.
No. 2, « " " George Snartt, Captain.
No. 3, •• '* " George H. Young, Captain.
No. 4, " '* " Burrows H. Rothwell, Captain.
No. 5, •' " ** Solon W. McMichael. Captain.
No. 6, " " " George Hervey McMichael, Captain.
The regular badge and ornaments, by permission of Lord DufTerin and as
authorized by (General Orders of 3rd May, 1878, and 1st March, 1879, are given
below:
Badge. — ^The badge and device of the battalion shall consist of the Earl of
DufTerin's crest, comprising a cap of maintenance surmounted by a crescent,
underneath which are the numerals 38 ; the whole encircled by a scroll or
garter, clasped with a buckle, and bearing the legend " Dufferin Rides" and his
Lordship's motto, " Per viaa rectos,'* the whole surmounted by the Imperial
Crown. The badge shall be silver for officers, and bronze for non-commissioned
officers and men.
The Cross Belt Ornaments are lion's head, chain and whistle, in silver, with
a centre ornament on a polished silver plate between two wreaths of maple
leaves, conjoined at the base, encircling a Maltese cross of frosted silver, fim- *
briated with polished silver ; between the arms of the cross four lionceU pas-
sant-gardant ; charged upon the cross a plate of frosted silver, inscribed with
the numerals 38, surrounded with a border, also of frosted silver, inscribed
with the words " DufTerin Rifles;" over all the Imperial crown in silver resting
upon a supporting tablet of the same. A centre ornament of silver on pouch
back of belt, consisting of the numerals 38, surrounded by a bugle ; the whole
surmounted by the Imperial crown.
The list of officers for May, 1883, are : Field and Staff Officers : Lient-CoL
Charles S. Jones ; Major, John Ballachey ; Adjutant, William Henry Hudson,
Capt; Paymaster, Frank J. Grenny, Hon. Capt ; Quartermaster, John D.
Pettit, Hon. Capt. ; Surgeon, Wm. T. Harris, M.D. ; Asst Suigectfi, Wm. R
Winskel, M J). Company officers : No. 1 has no officers yet. No. 2, Geoige
Snartt, Captain ; George Glenny, Lieutenant ; Louis F. Heyd, 2nd Lieutenant ;
No. 3, George H. Young, Captain ; Thos. Henry Jones, Lieutenant ; No. 4, Bur-
LOCAL HISTORY. 323
rows H. Eothwell, Captain ; Charles L Daniel, Lieutenant ; Thomas S. Wade,
2nd Lieutenant ; No. 5, Solon W. McMichael, Captain ; Wm. D. Jones, Lieu-
tenant ; No. G, George Hervey McMichael, Captain ; Richard R. Harris, lieu-
tenant ; John H. McLean, 2nd Lieutenant.
On December 23, 1864, during the civil war in the United States, the Brant-
ford Rifle Company, under command of Capt, Wm. Grant, with Lieut. Inglis
and Ensign Spence as his subalterns, was ordered into active service and was
stationed in barracks at Sarnia for five months, and during their stay mate-
rially assisted in maintaining neutrality between Great Britain and the United
Statea On March 8, 1866, at the time of the Fenian excitement, all the com-
panies ot the regiment were called out for active service, and remained under
arms for some time, the Brantford companies guarding numbers of Fenian pri-
soners who were confined in the Brantford 6aoL On September 9, 1879, the
regiment had the honour of being invited to take part in the Grand Military
Review in Toronto, before Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, and
attended in full force, its appearance on paraae and manoeuvres in the field being
most favourably commented on by the press of Toronto. The regiment of late
years has taken a good place among the most efficient and best equipped of the
force, and is held in high esteem by its sister militia regiments . A^ a mark of
this the regiment was, on the thirtieth of March, 1883, presented by the Queen's
Own Rifles of Toronto — Canada's crack corps — with a very chaste and hand-
some silver cup and case and an illuminated address, the presentation being
made by Col. Otter, in the Opera House, which was filled with the dite of the
City of Brantford, on which occasion Col. Jones of the Dufferin Rifles replied
to the address, and accepted the cup on behalf of his regiment. The regiment
at the present time is in a most eflScient shape, the officers being well up in
their duties besides being very popular with the men of the regiment, while
the ranks are filled with a class of men of which any regiment might well be
proud. The fine regimental brass and reed band, under the leadership of Mr.
Wimperis, adds much to the popularity of the regiment.
The Dufferin Rifles* Rifle Association, — The above association in connection
with the regiment is well organized and complete in every respect, and is con-
sidered in point of efficiency one of the best in the country. At the last annual
prize meeting of the Ontario Rifle Association, the Duflerin Rifles* team obtained
one of the five team prizes offered by the association, competing against the
best association teams in the Dominion, the individual members of the team
also standing well up in the grand aggregate prize list. The association has
been fortunate in being able to secure one of the best ranges in the Province, a
short distance from the city ; the use of the range having been granted to the
association by Robert Ashton, Esq., the Superintendent of the New England
Company. Adjoining the range lie the remains of the gallant Indian warrior,
Capt. Joseph Brant, from whom Brantford derives its name. Here also stands
the old Mohawk Church of historic renown, with its solid silver communion
service presented to the Indians by Queen Anne. In this church Prince Arthur
was made a chief of the Six Nation Indiana Many valuable silver cups and
medals belong to the association, the same being competed for at the annual
matches — ^the Merchants' Cup, Officers' Cup, Company Cup (presented by Judge
324
HISTORY OF BBAKT COUNTY.
Jones), Bull's-eye Cup and Queeii'a Own Cup (presented by the Queen's Own
Biflesf. Through the kindnesn uf Lord Dulferiu (the patron of the association},
a bronze medal, with the profiles of Lord and Lady Dufferin thereon, is shot for
annually, a new medal being forwarded by his Lordship for each annnal match.
The tirst medal presented by Lord Dufferin was won at the last annual matches
by Siii^eou Harris with a good score, fhe oHicers of the asiiociation are :
President, LieuL-Colonel Jones ; Vice-Presidents, Major Ballachey and Surgeon
Harris ; Secretary, Lieut Daniel ; Treasurer, Lieut. Glenny ; Range Officer, Capt
Young. Council : Lieut.-CoL Jones, Major Ballachey, Capt Snartt, Lieut Har-
ris, Lieut Glenny and Lieut Daniel
LOCAL HISTORY. 325
CHAPTER IV
The Churches.
Grace Church (Episcopal).
This is the oLlest congregation in the City of Brantford, and probably had
its origin amon^ the very earliest efforts to establish society here. For several
years previous to 1830, the Christians of this persuasion worshipped iu the old
Mohawk Church, on the then Indian Reservation ; Chief Brant, who was a con-
sistent member of ^he Church of England, proposed that if the people would
build a church in the Village of Brantford, he would set apart a block of ground
containing about three acres for the use and benefit of said church, either as an
endowment or for immediate disposal. Tliis offer was accepted, and in the year
1831 the late A. K. Smith and Mrs. Margaret Eerby gave several lots on the
corner of Albion and Cedar Streets, the same to be used as a site for the church
edifice and for a burial gi-ound. In 1832 a framed church was erected on this
ground ; the building would accommodate about four hundred people, but by
the addition of galleries, which was made in time following, its capacity was
increased to seat about seven hundred. The church was used until the year
1856, when more room being necessary, the original part of the present build-
ing was erected. This is one of the handsomest churches in the Dominion ; is
purely Gothic, with full clear-story elevation ; the original cost was twenty-two
thousand dollars. During the year 1882 several improvements were made,
amon^ which was an extension of the chancel, and a general renewal of the
interior. This work cost nine thousand dollars, and so enlarged the structure as
to give sittings for one thousand persons. There is in this church one of the
finest organs in central Ontario, which cost something over four thousand
dollars.
The first Eector was the Rev. James Campbell Usher, afterward Canon
Usher. This able divine served the congregation of Grace Church for a period
of forty years ; his memory is cherished by many worthy members of his
former flock, as having been a faithful and devoted worker in this pioneer field
of Christion advancement. He was succeeded by the Kev. Arthur Sweatman,
M.A., the present Bishop of Toronto, who tiUed the position for two years, when
the Kev. Bieginald H. Starr, M. A, was called to the rectorship, and remained three
years. The present Eector is the Kev. G. C. Mackenzie, Rural Dean of Brant,
who entered upon the duties of his charge in 1879. The first Church-wardens
were Reuben Leonard and William Richardson, whose official career began
in 1832. The present Wardens are Thomas Botham, Esq., and Charles S.
Mason, Elsq. ; there is also a select Vestry of eight members. The Building
Committee of the present church was composed of Thomas Botham, Ai'chibald
326 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Qreen, Charles Watts, Abner Bunnell, Henry Lemmon, and James Smith. The
last named gentleman had the entire charge of the work as Superintendent on
behalf of the Committee. Mr. Botham has been a member of this church for
forty year), during which time he has held the office of Church-warden eighteen
years. He also served as auditor of the accounts of the church for a long
period of time.
St. Jude's Episcopal Church
Is situated on Peel Street, comer of Dalhousie, in the East Ward. It is of
Gothic style of architecture and built of brick, with a square tower of the same
material, having a bell in it. Owing to the increase of Church of England
members in the East Ward and neighbourhood, it was deemed necessary some
twelve years ago to organize a church in that ward, and as a result, in 1872,
St Jude's was erected at a cost of about $6,000. It has a seating capacity of
about 400. The several clergymen appointed to this church are, in rotation
as follows : Eevs. MofTatt, Canon Salter, C. D. Martin, T. K. Davis, and the
present incumbent, Mr. Young, who succeeded Mr. Davis, May 1, 1882.
The First Presbyterian Church. ,
This congregation was the first organized Presbyterian body in Brantford.
The property on the corner of Wellington and George Streets, consisting of
two lots, was originally the property of the American Presbyterian Church.
This church for only a short time had a pastor, and about the year I844< it
became the property of the body called United Associate Missionary Synod
of the Canadas, which afterwards, in 1847, became the United Presbyterian
Church, which in time, by union with the Free Church in 1861, became the
Canada Presbyterian Church, and now, by the union of all the Presbyterian
Churches in the Dominion, is the Presbyterian Church in Canada The follow-
ing facts may be interesting regarding the history of the congregation : On the
9th of December, 1845, the members of the congregation of the United Associate
Presbyterian Church, St. George, in and around Brantford, who occasionally
had service in a school house which stood on what is now the Market Square »
Brantford, petitioned the West Flamboro' Presbytery to be formed into a
congregation in Brantford, under the inspection of the pastor of St Qeorge, the
Bev. James Roy. The petition was granted, Mr. Roy being apppointed to take
the necessary steps to organize the congregation and form a session. The mem-
bers of the first session then appointed were Messrs. John Dodds, David Christie
(afterwards the Hon. D. Christie), and Charles Steward, the latter acting a&
Clerk. On the 13th July, 1847, Rev. J. Roy resigned the oversight of the
congregation, the congregation having in the meantime become part of the
Unit^ Presbyterian Church, and on the 17th of August of the same year the
congregation gave a call to the Rev. A. A. Drummond, who was ordained on
the 20th of October, 1847. The members of the West Flamboro* Presbytery
Present at the ordination were Messrs. Caw, Christie, Roy, Ritchie, Barrie,.
'orrance and Fisher, ministers ; wifh Messrs. R Christie, J. Millar and D
Christie, ruling elders. Rev. Mr. Caw preached, and Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.)
Barrie addressed the minister and people. The congregation at that time
tmt^mm^mm
Tdf^. NE.« y«Rl
PUBIX UBRARY
ABTOfl, KWH<it,
TtLQVK »CC NCATlO><l
LOCAL HISTORY. 329
nambered about forty communicant members. The congre^tion had in the
meantime purchased the property on which the present church stands. On
this property there stood a church building which was not completed, and the
congregation set to work to complete the place of worship, and soon effected
their purpose. Under the Rev. A. A. Drummond, now of Newcastle, Ont., the
church prospered. The congregation increased, and a manse was built for the
pastor. Additional elders were elected — James Crawford and D. McNaughton,
in 1850 ; James Johnston and George Clark in 1853 ; W. Benwick and W.
Tumbull in 1855. In the year 1857 Mr. Drummond received a call to the con-
gregation of Noith Easthope and Mornington, and on the 15th of December the
Presbytery o^ Brant agreed to the dissolution of the pastoral tie between Mr.
Drummond and tlie congregation in Brantford. After a vacancy of several
months the Eev. Joseph Young was inducted into the pastorate by the Pres-
bytery, on the 6th of July, 1858. In 1859 Messrs. Kerr, Muir and Morice were
elected and ordained additional elders, who, with Messrs. Dodds, Crawford,
McXaugbton and Tumbull, constituted the session of the church at that time.
In the year 1861 the union between the United Presbyterian and Free Churches
in Canada took place, and in connection with this proposals were made for
union between the two Presbyterian Churches then in Brantford. The nego-
tiations, however, failed, and the union was not effected. In the early part of
the year 1863 Mr. Young was laid aside from his pastoral work by illness, and
towards the end of the year died. After a long vacancy the Be v. Thos. Lowry
was inducted into the pastorate in the year 1866, on the 25th December, by
the Presbytery of Paris. In the year 1867 Messrs. McArthur and Bandall
were elected elders, in 1870 Messrs. Itusseli ^nd Lyle, and Mr. Charles Green
in the year 1881. In the year 1877' stejis were taken to build a new church
edifice on the same site as the new o^^ . The. congregation in the meantime
worshipped in the Court House, which was kindly put at its disposal. On the
20th January, 1878, the present neat and commodious place of worship was
opened. In July, 1881, the Bev. T. Lowry, who for some months had been in
poor health, resigned his charge, after a faithful pastorate of nearly fifteen years.
Mr. Lowry at this date is still alive and in much better health. He resides in
Toronto, and is able to preach still. After another vacancy of several months,
the Bev. F. B. Beattie, B.D., of Baltimore and Coldsprings, was called as pastor,
and inducted on the 9th of May, 1882. He is the present pastor of the con-
gregation.
ZiON Church (Presbyterian).
In 1854 Zion Church congregation was first organized, the Bev. John Alex-
ander, of Niagara, being called as minister. At that time services were con-
ducted in the Town Hall, until a suitable edifice could be erected. It was
necessarily some time before the building was thorou^rhly completed ; and the
congregation met in the present lecture room until 1857, when the church was
formally opened. In 1860 Mr. Alexander resigned his pastorship, and for some
two years the church wai without a minister, when the Bev. Dr. Cochrane
was called from New York. From that time until now the reverend gentle-
man has faithfully fulfilled his arduous duties, until at the present he presides
over one of the largest and most influential congregations on this continent.
20
330 HISTOBT OF BEANT COUNTY.
His sterling worth and ability is acknowledged throughout America, and for
.Mdence of the great respect in which he is held by the ministers of his own
denomination, it is only necessary to refer to his appointment last year as
Moderator of the General Assembly. In 1867 it was found that the charch
was overcrowded, and the seating accommodation was accordingly enlarged by
the addition of galleries. In 1876 an alcove was added, and the pnlpit and
present handsome organ (made by Warren & Son, Montreal) put in. Since
that time the demand for additional seats "and other improvements has been
forced from year to year upon the Board of Management, until last year it was
definitely decided to enlarge, refurnish and redecorate the church throughout.
For some months psst workmen have been busily engnged in elTectiog the
desired alterations, and it is safe to say that for beauty and elegance Zion
Church is now unsuq)assed by any other in the Dominion. The edifice has
been enlarged by the addition of sixty by thirty-one feet at the rear portion.
The organ nas been placed on the right hand side, while on the left tne light
streams through two beautifully stained glass windows, the gift of Mr. J. K,
Osborne. The instrument has "been considerably improved, and with its re-
modelled exterior now presents a most hand,^me appearance. The pulpit has
been richly decorated with iron work, and the platform ornamented by two
handsome urns for flowers, the gift of Mr, W. E. Welding. The seats, which
throughout are new, are made of native butterwood highly polished. The iron
work at the ends is especially designed. The pews have been arranged in
semicircular form, with an inclination of twenty-one inches from rear to front.
This arrangement enables all in the church to obtain an equally good view of
the pulpit. The church has been recarpeted and recushioned throughout
ITie carpet, which was especially woven in Scotland, is of two shades in
crimson, and the cushions of rep, imported from England, are of a like colour.
The galleries all round have been brought forward eighteen inches, thus
enabling the seats to be removed six inches further apart. Three new hand-
some gasaliers, with sidelights to matcli, have been placed in position at a cost
of about S400. The new ceiling has been delicately pamielled and frescoed.
In the down-stairs portion of the building four new class rooms for Sunday
School purposes have been added, together with a handsome vestry for the
minister. This room has been suitably carpeted and furnished throughout with
secretaire, dressing stand and other appurtenances. The addition to the church
was built by Mr. William Watt. The estimated coat of the whole improve-
ments is $li,000. The carpets and cushions were provided by the ladies of
the church at a coat of $1,700,
Methodist Church.
meeting was held at Woodhouse on 6th September, 1836, Rev.
in the chair. The time cf the meeting was taken up almost
jting trustees to fill vacancies. At the second quarterly meeting,
or'a Road on the 12th day of December, 1836 — Rev. W, Ryerson
he following officers were nominated by Rev, Joseph Messmore :
lyze, Recording Steward ; Wesley Freeman, Joseph Carpenter,
i, Circuit Stewards ; J, Horton, Matthew Whiting, David Smalley,
LOCAL HISTORY. 331
The first quarterly meeting of the Brantford Circuit was held at Brantford on
the 19th September, 1835, at which meeting it was reported that they had
purchased two lots at the Crown Lands' sale, one for a chapel at £16 5s., and
the other for a parsonage at X15. The committee appointed to solicit subscrip-
tions having secured £215, it was decided to erect a chapel. On February
7th» 1845, the quarterly meeting adopted a resolution to sell the parsonage lot,
and apply the f uTids received towards the chapel fund. At a quarterly meeting
held on September 11th, 1851, Sev. K. Creighton was authorized to take out
the deed for a lot for a church site. It was also resolved " that it is deemed
advisable to sell the pews in said church.*' At a special quarterly meeting
held at Brantford Parsonage, 2nd July, 1853, it was resolved that Robert
Sproule, Herbert Biggar, Thomas O. Scott, Lewis Burwell, William Hocking,
John H. Moore, William H. Morgan, B.ev. Hamilton Biggar, £ev. Peter Jones,
Samuel Morphy, James Moore and John Gardham, be and are hereby appointed
a committee to secur^ the deed of a lot for the purpose of erecting a new Wes-
leyan Methodist Church thereon. The old church which stood on the site of
the present Park Hotel, and fronting the square now called " Victoria Park,"
having been burned down by lighted cinders, carried by the wind from a fire
near the iron bridge on Colbome Street, in the spring of 1853, services for the
Methodists were held in the Court Room until the completion of the present
Wellington Street Church. At a meeting held on 8th April,' 1853, having
previously obtained the lot on Wellington Street from L. Burwell for £200,
and having asked for tender for the erection of a church, the following were
received : W. Hocking, mason and plasterer's work, finding materials, £1,259
14s. 6d.; Mellish & Russell, for completion of the building, £2,180 ; Messrs.
Turner & Sinon, £2,600. The tender of Messrs. Mellish & Russell, being the
lowest, was adopted, after which it was resolved to sell the old church and
property, and apply the proceeds to the construction of the new one. Conse-
quently, on the 22nd June, 1853, it was sold by auction to Messrs. Mellish
& Russell for $700. In order to complete the building, it was resolved to raise
the sum of £500 sterling, to be borrowed on ten years' credit, the trustees to be
personally responsible with the mortgage on the new property. The following
names were added to the Trustees as a Building Committee : A K. Smith, K £.
Strobridge, John Heaton, Judge Jones, William Matthews, John Kendall and
Thomas Glassco. On April 3rd, 1854, the Trustees and Building Committee
appointed John Turner as architect during the erection and completion of the
church, at the sum of £70 for his services. This church underwent a thorough
repair, and was reopened on the 27th December, 1874, by Divine services on
the Sunday, which were followed by ft tea meeting on the following evening.
Brant Avenue Methodist Church.
The society of the above church was organized in July, 1870, with a very
large and successful membership, and has continued to increase in numbers and
interest to the present. The membership now numbers over two hundred. In
1871 the members built a handsome brick church building on the corner of
Brant Avenue and Richmond Street, at a cost of about $25,000. The building
is handsomely furnished in the interior, and has a seating capacity of 650.
332 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY,
In 1875 the society build a church in West Brantford, on Oxford Street, which
was dedicated during the same year. It was built to meet the demaud of the
rapid growth of the church membership iu that section of the town. It haa
since, however, become au iudependent organization. The Brant Avenue Church
is under thu pastoral charge of the Kev. Manly Benson.
Emmanuel M. E Church
Was established fifteen years ago by Ecv. W. 6, Brown. Sen-ices were first
held in a hall opposite Market Square, at tie hour of 9.30 a.m., before the other
church services in the city were held. About thirty people attended the first
services. During the lirst year a site for a church building was purchased la
the East Ward, and $700 in subscriptions procured towards its erection. This
project was abandoned the following year, and an old church building, formerly
occupied by the Presbyterians, and situated on the north side of Wellington
Street, Queen's Ward, purchased. Worship was held in this church until the fall
of 1878, when the church property known as Emmanuel Congregational Church
was purchased by the congregation. This is a comfortable brtck stmcture,
situated on the comer of Queen and Wellington Streets, capable of seating 250
persons. There is now a membership of over 100 persons, and a congregation
of over 200. The following have been pastors in the order named : Kev. W. G.
Brown, Rev. J. A. Livingston, Eev, D. Pomeroy, Kev. B. Bristol, Rev, Thomas
Athoe, Eev. J. S. Williamson, Rev. E. H. PUcher, D.I)., Rev. J. A. Combs. Rev.
G. C. Squire, Eev. C. Creighton, and Rev. C. M. Thompson. The latter, who is
the present pastor, was bom in Addington Co., Out., and educated in the
Dominion. He came to this congregation from the church at St. Marys in 1883.
The congregation and Sabbath School are growing numerically, financially and
otherwise under his care.
Preaching services are held at 11 a,m. and 7 p.m. each Sabbath, and the
Sabbath School at 2.30 p.m. The following are the Board of Trustees : John
E. Kerr, Esq., James Hariey, Esq., H. A. Hartley, Esq., J. K. Van Fleet, Esq.,
Wm. E. Kerr. Esq., Eev. T. S. Linscott, and Abram Van Sickle, Esq.
Methodist Church of Canada.
This denomination in Brantford erected a small frame church on Oxford
Street, west side of the Grand River, in October, 1876, at a cost of 31,600.
Considerable additions and improvements were made to it in 1882, at an outlay
ailding now presents' a prominent and substantial appear-
the church has been elegantly fitted up, and will hold a
ut 300, The membership numbers about 70. For two
ng the pulpit was filled by local supply, and the first regular
Broadway, who officiated for fifteen mouths, when he waa
sent pastor, Eev. Mr. Boyd,
The PRmmvE Methodist Church
on the west side of Market Street, near Marlborough, uid
r 1856. The cost was about $3,500, and it has a seating
LOCAL HISTORY. 333
capacity of 300. This organization was formed in 1854, and numbered at that
period some 76 members. At the present time the building is used only for
lectures and occasional services.
The British M. E. Church (Coloured).
The society of coloured Methodists was organised In 1835 with but a handful
of members. Meetings were held whenever and wherever opportunity oflfered,
and the church continued weak until 1865, when the society, having received
frequent acquisitions to its membership, decided to erect a church building.
Accordingly a lot was purchased on Murray Street, between Dalhousie and
Darling, and a frame church built, with a seating capacity of about 300. The
society is now in a more promising condition, and numbers about fifty members.
The First Baptist Church.
This church was organized in 1833 by Rev. Wm. Bees, agent of the Ameri-
can Home Missionary Society, who laboured in this place for a period of eight
years, and was succeeded by Eev. John Winterbotham. Since then the pastors
have been Rev. S. L. Davidson in 1850 ; Rev. John Alexander, Rev. Wm.
Stewart, Rev. Dr. Hurd, Rev. — Porter and Rev. J. B. Tuttle, the latter having
assumed the pastorate in October, 1880. For more than twenty years the con-
gr^;ation worshipped in a frame building on Cedar Street. In 1855 a brick
church was erected at a cost of S7,000, which in 1857 burned down, and thus
gave way to the present beautiful edifice which occupies the same site. The
cost of the church building was $18,000. It is built of white brick with cut
stone trimmings, and is one hundred feet long by fifty -six feet wide. The
auditorium is divided into three aisles and six tiers of pews, with a gallery at
the end, and has a seating capacity of 800. The basement, which is used as a
Sabbath school room and lecture room, is thirteen feet high, the ceiling, which
is twenty-seven feet from the floor, being of panel work with stucco ornaments,
and the walls represent bonded masonry. The windows are of stained glass ;
the spire is 160 feet high ; and the building, which is of Romanesque style of
architecture, reflects great credit on the architect. Notwithstanding the large
dimension? of this building, it can hardly afford ample room for the present
congregation, the membership of the church being the largest of any church of
this creed in Canada.
The Tabebnacle Baptist Chubch
Was organized by those interested in the formation of a new church on the
twenty-fourth of February, 1870, and an appointment of officers made. In the
month of March following, a call was issued to Rev. John Alexander of Mont-
real, who preached for the congregation on the last Sabbath in April and the
first Sabbath in May, and accepted the call, his acceptance to take effect the
following autamn. In the meantime a temporary call was extended on May
loth to Rev. — Gaines, of Montreal. On the first of April a movement was made
toward the organization of a Sunday school, and soon afterwards books were
334 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
purchased, officers elected, and the school permanently established. On April
10th the male members of the church were constituted a committee to prepare
articles of faith for the government of the new organization, and after due
deliberation they adopted the articles of faith from the " Baptist Church
Manual " published at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first sacrament was
administered April 29, by Deacon R Morton, in the absence of a pastor. On
May 17th the first meeting was held in the new room, Kerr's Music Hall, and
on the sixteenth of the ifoUowing August, the pastor elect assumed his pas-
torate. In November, 1870, a committee, consisting of the pastor and ten
laymen, was appointed to buy Kerr's Music Hall for $6,000, he to give off
81,500. The building was remodelled to some extent, and changed into a
tabernacle. In October, 1875, Eev. Robert Cameron, of New York, accepted
a call to the pastorate. In the spring of 1881 the tabernacle was sold to Mr.
Stratford for S5,000, and the church began worshipping in the Y.M.C.A. Hall.
Soon afterward a lot was purchased on the comer of George and Darling
Streets of Dr. Cochrane, and the erection of the present church edifice was
begun in the fall of the same year, by the laying of the corner stone with
appropriate ceremony. The church began the use of the chapel in the new
church in September, 1882. The building is one of the finest in the city, and
reflects great credit on the congregation, as well as on the Building Committee,
which was composed of five men of undoubted ability. The congregation is
one of the most prosperous and enterprising in the city, and now numbers 272
souk.
The Congregational Church.
During the early days of the city a worthy minister from Buffalo was
accustomed to preach occasionally at various places in this part of the Province.
His labours in Brantford were rewarded by a deep awakening of the people,
who became desirous of forming a church, but as there were but few compara-
tively, and they not fully of one mind concerning the particular denomination
which they would like to represent, the reverend gentleman advised them to
wait until such time- as they could unite in their action by common consent.
These meetings were held in the waggon shop of John M. Tupper, a well-
known citizen of that period. At that time Henry Wilkes, now the Rev. Dr
Wilkes, of Montreal, was a student of theology in the schools of Scotland ; it
was agreed to ask him to secure the services of some fit clergyman in that
country to come over and take charge of the organization and growth of a
church which should be formed from the material prepared by the evangelist
from Buffalo. Accordingly the Eev. Adam Lilly, D.f)., arrived in course of
time to assume the duties of pastor to the new flock Upon his arrival, how-
ever, he found that the people had become divided over the question of denomi-
national form which they would adopt. This division appears to have been
brought about by the efforts of a certain over zealous clergyman who visited
the people before the arrival of Dr. Lilly ; at all events, those who had been
instrumental in bringing him here felt it to be their duty to support him in
his labours now that he was one of their number.
Of course the separation of the originally small body of Christians into two
distinct parts weakened both, and for the time bid fair to defeat all efforts at
LOCAL HISTOBYr 335
successful organization ; but in that, as in everything else in those days, the
more difficult the task the more energy was applied to its accomplishment.
The followers of Dr. Lilly proceeded as best they could to embody themselves
as a Congregational Society. Previous to this event, and before any division
of the people had taken place, an effort had been made to erect a house of
worship ; but now came th^ real trouble. As there had been some doubt
about the united ability of all interested to build a church, it was decidedly
doubtful about being able to provide two such structures. After the organiza-
tion of the society it met habitually in the upper portion of a large ware-
house, which belonged to that sturdy pioneer, John A. Wilkes, Esq. About
the year 1836-7 the congregation had become so thoroughly united and
strengthened as to be able to build a comfortable church on Dalhousie Street.
This building was burned in 1864, alter which the present edifice on Greorge
J*»treet was erected. Concerning the persons and incidents connected with the
early history of this church, there is no record to give interesting facts and
data. Rev. Dr. Lilly, after serving several years a;^ pastor of the church, became
connected with the Congregational College at Toronto and Montreal, in which
capacity he was engaged until his death. The present church building was dedi-
cated to the worship of Almighty God on Sunday, November 19, 1865 ; the
dedication hymn was composed for the occasion by the Pastor, Rev. J. Woods.
Rev. Dr. Wilkes, of Montreal, preached a beautiful discourse from 1 Tim. i. 11.
In the afternoon Rev. F. H. Marling preached from Eph. ii. 20, 22, and
1 Peter, ii. 4, 5. Dr. Wilkes preached again in the evening from 2 Cor. ii. 14.
The Third, ob " East Ward," Baptist Church
Began its existence as a distinct Christian body on Friday evening, August
27th, 1875, at which time a meeting was held in the new Mission Chapel (now
the place of worship of this congregation) in the East Ward of Brantford.
This meeting was held in response to a call to determine whether the new
building should be used for a mission school, or whether a new church should
be organized to occupy it as a regular meeting place. There were some two
hundred persons present, most of whom were members -of other churches. The
meeting was presided over by Mr. John Harris, of the First Baptist Church of
Brantford, and Mr. T. A. Moore was chosen as secretary. " Hold the Fort, for
1 am coming," was eifectively rendered, after which several brethren offered
prayer, and the business of the meeting was proceeded with at once. The
question of the desirability of organizing a new church was carried unani-
mously, and the sum of $869.00 pledged in a few minutes. After this public
meeting was ended an assembly of those who had signified their desire to
unite with the new enterprise was held at the same place for organization.
The Rev. John Alexander was called, by the unanimous vote of those assembled,
to assume the pastorate of the new flock, at a yearly salary of 81,000.00. A
deputation was sent to inform the rev. gentleman of the call which had been
given him, and in a short time his formed acceptance was the result. The new
body took the name of the East, Ward Baptist Church, This movement
originated with the people of the First Baptist Church in April, 1875, and was
carried to a quick conclusion by the committee into whose hands the work was
386 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
given. They had secured a beautiful site, and had erected thereon a neat
brick chapel, 63 feet by 35 feet, with a seating capacity for about tour hundred
persona, m time for this new offshoot from the established church of this
denominatinn in Brantford.
On Sunday, the 19th of September, 1875, the opening services of the church
were held. The Rev. Dr. Davidson, of Gnelpb, preached a powerfnl discourse
from the text found in Psalm cxviii. 25. In the afternoon the Rev. W. H, Porter,
of the First Baptist Church, delivered an effective sermon from Col. i. 18. The
evening service was conducted by Rev. Wm. Stewart, M.A., of Hamilton ; the
text selected was Proverbs ix. 1, 5. The original body of this congregation
was composed of twenty-four members from the First Baptist Church, and
forty-eignt from the Second. The chapel building, which has been mentioned,
was built mainly under the supervision of Mr. Thomas S. Shenston and the
Messrs. J. & A. Harris. It was enlarged and refitted for church purposes
soon after its purchase by the new society.
St. Basil's Catholic Church.
This imposing edifice is located on Palace Street, and is a very fine building
of white brick, with cut stone dressings. The corner stone was laid on
November 4, 1866, under the pastorate of Rev. Au^st Carayon, the services
being conducted by the Right Rev. John Farrell, D.D., Bishop of Hamilton,
assisted by Rev. P. Bardon. The ceremony was very impressive, and a large
concourse of people assembled to witness and participate in the servicps. An
appropriate inscription, tofjether with copies of newspapers, coins, &c., were
enclosed in a glass jar and deposited in the stone. The building is 155 leet
long by G4 wide, exclnsive of the buttresses. The transepts are 90 feet in
width, and the nave is 52 feet high. The ceiling of the auditorium is groined,
with moulded ribs and basses. The church consists of nave, aisles, north and
south chapels and sanctuary, with vestry in the rear. The front of the build-
ing is finished with two towers, the larger one rising to the height of 180 feet.
The windows throughout are of handsome, stained enamelled glass. The total
cost of the building was about 825,000. It is now being remodelled at con-
siderable expense.and will be when completed one ofthe handsomest churches,
in the interior, ot any in the Dominion. It has a seating capacity of about
1,200. The Church Society numbers about 2,500 membere. Rev. Peter Lennon
is the present pastor of the parish, and Rev. James Leuuon curate.
LOCAL HISTORY. 337
CHAPTER V.
Celebration of the Crimean Victory. — Reception of the
Prince of IVales. — Celebration of the Prince's Wedding. —
Railway Celebration. — Governor-Generars Visit. — De-
structive Fire, i860. — Murder of Mail Carrier. — The
Fenian Raid of 66.
Celebration of the Great Crimean Victory.
After bombarding the stronghold of the Crimea, Sebastopol, for a long
period, a final and successful assault was made by the allied armies on the
8th September, 1855.
On the receipt of this intelligence the joy and gratitude of the people of
this town were universal. A spirit of loyalty throbbed in every bosom, such
as was never witnessed before by even the oldest inhabitant. Bonfires were
kindled to manifest the loyalty of the inhabitants to Her Most Gracious
Majesty Queen Victoria, and to illustrate their satisfaction on account of the
capture of the great Russian fortress, and the consequent humiliation of the
Northern Autocrat. On the next day, Friday, 28th September, 1855, fiags
were displayed on the Court House and other buildings. Streamers of different
colours were extended across Colbome Street in several places. The afternoon
was kept as a holiday, all places of business being closed. About 4 o'clock p.m.
a procession was formed, under the supervision of H. Racey, Esq., which,
headed by the British flag and the Brantford band, traversed the principal
streets, and finally assembled on the square in front of the Court House, where
an intellectual treat was provided for the patriotic multitude.
His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and after delivering an appro-
priate speech, and proposing three cheers for the Queen and an equal number
for the Emperor of France^ introduced the Hon. W. H. Merritt, the worthy
representative of the County of Lincoln, to address the people.
The hon. gentleman took a common-sense view of the war that was being
waged in the East Had Poland, Hungary and Italy been aroused to struggle
for their independence, had the question been based upon universal liberty, so
that the contest might be one in behalf of pure freedom against the absolutism
and despotism of Europe, he would be actuated by a greater degree of enthu-
siasm than under the present circumstances. He would pitch Austria to Russia
and not crave her support, for instead of being a benefit to the Western Powers
she was a cloo- wheel to retard their progress. He desired to see the entire
Continent of Europe enjoying the glorious boon of freedom. When in France he
338 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
found the liberty of the press crushed, the rights of Habeas Corpus not recog-
nized, and travellers necessitated to' have passports to travel through the empire.
Nearly^ the whole of the Continent was in a similar condition, but in the
British Empire matters are quite different.
After the hon. gentleman took his seat, J. A. Wilkes, Esq., addressed the
assemblage. The aged patriarch manifested a deal of patriotism, bat differed
from the preceding speaker in regard to the method of conducting the war.
He deemed it advisable to conquer the Czar first, and then to subjugate the
other countries one by one. He would have the canker-worm of despotism
eaten by piecemeal. The venerable patriot sat down with his heart r^uly to
burst with loyalty and gratitude.
D. M. Gilkinson, Elsq., was the next speaker. Although his speech was not
lengthy, it was truly loyal and patriotia
The Rev. T. L Davidson, A.M., then came forward and delivered a flaming
oration. He spoke with deep pathos about the great victory that had been
gained by the allies. He read histoiy to a considerable extent, but never found
recorded on its pages an achievement as brilliant as the capture of the great
fortress of the Crimea. It far surpassed Jena, Lodi or Austerlitz. He abhorred
war, for he was decidedly a friend of peace, but he could not feel otherwise
than like a man on that momentous occasion. He hoped to see the sun of
peace rise in the East, and the bloody sun of war set in the West.
K B. Wood, Esq., entertained the multitude with a very appropriate speech.
He entered with 'deep feeling into the subject, and sent a thrill of patriotism
through the vast throng. His powerful appeals bespoke a spirit deeply imbued
with the principles of universal freedom.
The Rev. J. Alexander did not consider that he was out of place, as a minister
of the Oospel, in standing before the people on thiBit important occasion. The
victory gained was a triumph of liberty and civilization over the barbarism of
Muscovy, a conflict which would eventuate in the amelioration of the down-
trodden masses of Europe. On the other hand, the prodigious slaughter on
the field — the woe and anguish of bleeding thousands — and the numerous
widows and orphans caused oy the scene of blood, excited emotions of grief in
his soul which counterbalanced those of joy.
The Mayor closed the meeting with a few remarks, and dismissed the assem-
blage. Up to a late hour in the night bonfires blazed, cannon roared, the town
was illuminated, and every one was enraptured over the great victory.
EeCEPTION OF THE PrINCE OF WALES.
The following communication, addressed to the County Clerk, from the
Warden, who was absent in Toronto, was the first official notification to the
County Council of t^e intended visit of His Koyal Highness the Prince of
Wales to Brantf ord :
"Toronto, 8th September, 1860.
" Dear Sir, — His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is to lunch at Brant-
ford on Friday next, the 14th instant, at one o'clock, and I think it would be
proper to call the Council together for Wednesday next, at 10 o'clock, a.nL, in
order that it may have an opportunity of taking into consideration what part
LOCAL HISTORY. 339
it would like to take in the reception of the Prince on the occasion of his visit
to the county ; and as the time is short, and some of the members live at a
distance from their post offices, it would be well for you to send a special
messenger to them, to ensure their getting notice of the meeting. It will be
an important occasion, and any demonstration that may be decided on should
be worthy of the county and it I would suggest that it would probably be
well for the Beeves and Deputies to invite and induce the members of the
Councils they represent, and as many of the inhabitants within their respec-
tive localities as possible, to be present on that most important and interesting
occasion. You will act for the best in the matter.
" Yours respectfully,
** Thomas Con boy,
" To John Cameron, Esq., " Warden.
" County Clerk, Brantford."
In accordance with this communication, the County Clerk called a meeting
of the Council for the Wednesday following. The Council having gone into a
Committee of the Whole, the chairman reported the following resolution, viz. :
" That it be resolved that the Council do contribute to defraying the expenses
that may be incurred in giving to His Boyal Highness a proper reception on
the occasion of his approaching visit, an amount not exceeding four hundred
doUars, and that the members of the Legislative Council and Assembly, the
Warden, the Judge, and the Sheriff of the County, be included in the Reception
Committee appointed by the Town of Brantford."
This exceedingly loyal and sensible report was adopted, without any motion
of amendment, by the startling majority of One ! the yeas and nays being as
follows : Yeas. — ^The Warden, Messrs. McEwen, Hunter, Elliott, Thompson and
Wallace — 6. Nays, — Messrs. Anderson, Mullen, Henry, Lawrence and Pat-
ton — 5.
Though it was only known three or four days before his arrival that the
Prince intended making a stop of an hour and a half at Brantford, on his way
to Niagara Falls, yet his reception was all that could have been expected had
the time been much longer. In the interval before his arrival the city was a
constant scene of activity, excitement and bustle. Determined to evince their
loyalty and to give a cordial and hearty welcome to their future king, the heir
apparent to the British throne and son of their Sovereign, the people, with one
accord and without distinction of sect or creed, united to do all that could
be done, in the short time allowed for preparations, to make the visit of
the Prince an occasion long to be remembered, both by the rising generation
and the royal personage whom they delighted to honour. Repeated aelegations
were sent by the Town Council or by committees appointed to make the
necessary arrangements for the Prince's reception, not only to ascertain the
precise time of the visit, but to induce, if possible. His Highness to make a
longer stay in the city than was originally intended.
Though they failed to accomplish the latter object, no sooner was it announced
that the royal cortege would arrive at one o'clock on Friday the 14th Sep-
tember, than the work of preparation was commenced with a will and energy
characteristic of the people of Brantford. Ordnance were placed on the hills
340 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
surrouuding the city to welcome the Prince with their voices of thunder, as soon
&s his train should appear in sight Magnificent arches of evergreens and
appropriate devices were placed across the railroad track at the depot, and others
crossed the streets at intervals along the whole route to be traversed by the
royal party. Union Jacks and patriotic mottoes floated from the spires of
churches, from the roofs of public buildings and from nearly every window.
The town was in its gala dress, and everything betokened the joy the people
felt in receiving in their midst the son of the best and most virtuous of the
long line of sovereigns that have shed lustre on British constitutional history.
The weather on the eventful dav was clear and cool, and most favourable
for the events that were to take place. A multitude of twenty thousand people
had assembled at the depot to await the arrival of the train bearing the royal
party. Carriages, buggies, the old family-spring waggon and every class of
vehicle was pressed into service to bear the people of the district for miles
around to the centre of attraction, where each hoped to get a glimpse of Eng-
land's future king. At one o'clock precisely His Royal Highness and suite
arrived under the beautiful quintuple railway arch. His arrival was greeted
with a chorus of ten thousand voices — with ten thousand hearty, enthusiastic
British cheers ; and over all was heard at short intervals the prolonged echoes
of a royal salute from the cannon on Terrace Hill. T^e school children added
to the interest of the occasion by singing some stanzas of the National Anthem.
Immediately after the presentation of the addresses the procession was
formed, and in the order following marched through the streets :
Programme of the Procession.
Henry Racey, Esq., Marshal
The Bufialo and Lake Huron Band.
St. Andrew's Society. .
St George's Society.
Chief G. H. M. Johnson, Marshal.
Ionian Band.
The Old Warriors of the Six Nations.
The Chiefs of the Six Nations.
The Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscororas, Delawares, in full
Indian War Costumes.
H. Yardington, E-q.,. Marshal.
The Keller Band.
Clergymen of different Denominations.
Veterans of 1812.
The Reeve and Council of Simcoe.
Warden and Council of Brant, with the County Officers and Members of
2 Parliament. ' ^
S3 p;^ F. P. Goold, Esq., Marshal St
4§ H. K. H The Prince of Wales, and Suite, in Carriages. §
^ Officers of Militia, mounted ^
•S R W. N. Alger, Esq., Marshal. J5
3 ^ The Prince of Wales' Young Canada Guard. §-
^ Citizens. ^
LOCAL HISTOBT. 341
Arrived at the leception canopy, the heads of corporations and societies
having addresses to present were introduced by His Excellency the Governor-
General. Addresses were presented by J. D. Clement, Esq., Mayor of the Corpora-
tion, in behalf of the citizens ; T. Conboy, Esq., Warden of the County of Brant,
in behalf of the people ; Hon. S. J. Jones, Esq., County Judge, in behalf of the
Quarter Sessions ; W. W. Simcoe, Esq., Reeve of the Town of Simcoe ; Thomas
Batham, Esq., President of St. George's Benevolent Society ; Allan Cleghom,
Esq., President of St. Andrews Benevolent Society ; C. A. Jones, son of the
late Rev. Peter Jones, Missionary and Chief, in behalf of the Mississagua
Indians ; and lastly, an address was presented by the Six Nation Indians.
To all of these the Prince returned addresses, thanking the people in his own
and in his mother's behalf for their cordial welcome, their loyalty, etc.
A magnificent lunch was prepared at the Kerby House, which was said by
the Prince's followers to have surpassed anything of the kind they had seen
since the Prince first landed on Canadian soil. After toasts were drank, the
Prince retired to his carriage and was driven at the head of an irregular pro-
cession to the depot, where he again took the train for Fort Erie. The people
were amply repaid for all their trouble and work by the very evident signs of
pleasure which the Prince took no pains to hide. He expressed himself well
pleased with the city, and especially so with the grand ovation tendered him
on so sKort a stay.
Celebration of the Marruge of the Prince of Wales.
In response to a petition numerously signed, the Mayor issued a proclama-
tion requesting the citizens to observe the 10th of March, 1863, being the day
fixed for the royal marriage, as a general holiday. The committee appointed
to make the necessary arrangements for the due celebration of the day
resolved to have a grand procession, and to conclude the day's proceedings by
a supper at the Kerby House.
The morning of the 10th, one of the most delightful of the winter, was
ushered in by the booming of cannon on Smith's Hill. The reverberations
aroused the inhabitants, and indicated that the Bailway Artillery Company
was early at its post. At half -past ten o'clock the procession was formed on
the Market Square, under the direction of Col. A. Bunnell, of the 1st Battalion
of the Brant Militia, assisted by Capt. Curtis, Messrs. H. Racey and H. Lem-
mon, in the foUowing order :
1. The Juvenile Drum and Flute Band.
2. Boys of the Public Schools.
3. The Soup of Temperance.
4. The Good Templars.
5. The Indians, with their Band.
6. Bescue Fire Company.
7. Washington Engine Company, No. 5«
8. Hook and Ladder Company.
9. Railway Artillery Company,
10. Highland Rifle Company.
342 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
11. No. 1 Brant Rifle Company.
12. Officers of 2nd Battalion Brant Militia.
13. St. George's Society.
14. St. Andrew's Society.
15. Other Citizens.
16. The Mayor and Corporation.
The procession had a very impoi^ing appearance, even more so than that formed
on the occasion of the Prince of Wales' visit to Brantford in 1860. The
Volunteer Companies and Fire Companies showed off to great advantage ; and
the various temperance and benevolent societies, wearing their appropriate
regalia and with banners unfurled, constituted, with the innumerable smaU
flags, an important feature in the pageant. But the most attractive of all was
the Juvenile Drum and Flute Band, composed of about fifteen or twenty lads,
from about six or seven to twelve years of age, dressed in a neat uniform, and
executing a number of pieces of music with a taste, skill and effect which
would have done credit to many a band of adults having years of experience.
On their arrival at their destined place, Victoria Square, about noon, the
royal standards of Britain and Denmark were run up, a royal salute was fired
by the Railway Artillery Company, and a/ett de joie by the Rifle Companies.
In the evening about seventy or more persons sat down to an elegant supper
prepared at the Kerby House.
J. D. Clement, Esq., Mayor, presided with his usual urbanity and efficiency,
assisted by Col. Bunnell as 1st Vice-Chairman, and 6. H. M. Johnson as 2nd
Vice-Chairman.
The following toasts were proposed and accompanied by appropriate intro-
ductory remarks by the Chairman :
1. " The Queen," drunk with the usual honours and followed by the National
Anthem by the juvenile band.
2. " The memory of His Royal Highness the late Prince Consort ; " drunk
in solemn silence.
3. " The Prince of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family," followed by
" Rule Britannia " by the Indian band.
4. "The Army and Navy," responded to by Major Alger, CoL Bunnell and
Drill Sergeant Ross, all of whose speeches were characterized by brevity, the
proper and usual peculiarity of military men. The " Red, White and Blue "
was admirably sung by Mr. Wonham, all present joining in the chorus.
5. " His Excellency the Governor-General." This tO€tst was most eloquently
responded to by Wm. Matthews, Esq., whose remarks drew forth rounds of
applause. It was followed by music from the Indian band and " The Days
when we went Gypsying," by H. Lemmon, Esq., editor and proprietor of the
Courier.
The Chairman then introduced at considerable length, and with much good
judgment and felicity of expression,
6. " The health of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales,
the newly married couple." After appropriate music by the Indian band, D.
C. P' "^"^q., Principal of the High and Public Schools, responded in a
ve ner, adverting with much effect to a number of historical inci-
LOCAL HISTORY. 343
dents in the history of England and Denmark, and prognosticating a glorious
future from the present alliance of the two royal families.
7. Col. Bunnell, Vice-Chairman, proposed ** The Rose, the Shamrock and
the Thistle." Song by Sergeant Clark. Major Alger responded on behalf of
the St. Greorge's Society, Sergeant Bobertson for the St. Andrew's, and James
Weyms, Esq., for Ireland. " A Life on the Ocean Wave " was given by the
juvenile band with much spirit and accuracy of execution.
8. G. H. M. Johnson, 2nd Vice-Chairman, gave " Canada our Home." A.
S. Hardy, Esq., responded, and his speech was considered by many the speech
of the evening. Music by the Indian band.
9. The 1st Vice-Chtdrman proposed " The Agricultural Interests of Canada."
J. D. Clement, Esq., responded in his usual pleasing and effective manner, and
was followed with music by both bands.
10. The 1st Vice-Chairman also proposed " The Commercial and Manufac-
turing Interests of Canada," and Messrs. Sunter, Paterson, Qrant and Bellhouse
responded.
11. " The Educational Institutions of the Country " was responded to by D.
C. Sullivan, Esq., LL.B., Principal of the Grammar and Central Schools.
Other toasts and speeches followed, interspersed with music by the bands
and songs by several gentlemen present. Mr. J. Edgar was deemed worthy
of the highest commendation for his energy in organizing the juvenile band,
and Mr. Witty, their teacher, did himself no little credit in bringing them
forward so rapidly, and in imparting to them so successfully a knowledge of
the principles of music. The Indian brass band added very materially to the
pleasure of the occasion. Many of the people of Brantford and vicinity will
long remember the pleasure they enjoyed on the occasion of the nuptials of
the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Grand Eailway Celebration.
Friday, January 13, 1854, the day appointed for the opening of the central
section of the Buffalo & Brantford Railway, was a gala day to the inhabitants
of Brantford and surrounding country. Notwithstanding the inclemency of
the weather and the sloppy state of the streets, caused by a downfall of snow
which melted as soon as it fell, the congregated multitude, numbering some
12,000 persons, a large proportion of which were ladies, were found at the
depot anxiously av/aiting the arrival of the trains containing the invited guests
from Buffalo and intermediate points.
Shortly after noon a procession, consisting of the Sons of Temperance, the
OddfeDows and the Fire Companies, was formed in front of the Town Hall,
and, headed by the Philharmonic Band, marched to the depot, marshalled by
Geo. Babcock and his assistants. Shortly alter two o'clock, p.m., the trains
arrived and were received with loud cheers, firing of cannon, and every demon-
stration of joy and rejoicing that could possibly be indulged in. About 500
came from Buffalo, including many of the Buffalo firemen, who made a fine
appearance in their splendid uniform.
The cheering having subsided and the visitors landed, the Mayor ot Brant-
fordy Mr. 6. S. Wilkes, invited the large assemblage to enter the Round House,
34* HISTOEY OF BRAKT COONTy.
for the purpoaft of listeDing to the addresses from himself and others. The
Mayor in his address, which was an extempore one, jocularly alluded to the
fact of the salubrity of the climate of Buffalo, at the same time poioting to
the fair forms and beautiful faces which had arrived a few minutes before by
the train.
Mr. Wadsworth and the Mayor of Buffalo severally replied, and in very
feeling, appropriate and eloquent terms thauked the people of Brantford for
the very cordial reception which had been given them. Both were evidently
very talented men — the former especially was an exceedingly forcible speaker,
and his address, as well as that of the latter, was entirely devoid of that ful-
some twaddle which is so often inflicted upon the public on such occasions.
The procession having refonued, marched to the public square opposite the
Town Hall, when the parties connected therewith quietly dispersed. The Odd-
fellows and Fire Companies entertained the Buffalo Firemen at a dinner in
the large new building erected by Messrs, Cartan and Dee, on the comer of
Market and Colbome Streets. The number assembled around the festive board
was estimated at 200. The dinner was furnished by Mr. J. Tripp, and was every-
thing that could be desired. The dinner given by the Mayor and Corporation
of Brantford came off in the Town Hall, which was crowded to excess, room
having to be made for the invited guests, who were duly accommodated. Mr,
Burluy, the caterer on this occasion, exceeded all anticipation in the el^;ance
of the repast furnished. At 8 o'clock, p.m., there was a grand display of fire-
works in front of the Court House, which, notwithstanding the inclemency of
the weather, went off admirably.
The grand railroad ball took place in the large room, in the second story of
the depot machine shops, which was verj' tastefully decorated and admirably
fltted up for the occasioa Not less than 1,500 persons were present, most of
whom "tripped the light fantastic toe " until the " wee sraa' hours ayont the
twal'." There were two bands of musicians present, one a cotillion band firom
Buffalo, under the direction of Mr. Delvechio, and the other the Brantford
■' Philhiwraonics," under the dii-ection of Herr F. Beyer. Both played exceed-
ingly well.
About 10 o'clock on the following morning the Buffalooians took their de-
partare, evidently well pleased with their visit.
The Qovernor-Genekal's Visit.
_ . - „ . jggg^ g[j Edmund Head paid a visit to oat town,
ivhich he was received evinced the loyalty, sound
inhabitants. The day was beautiful, being one
inn. No shower, no cloud, no dreary mist marred
? of a hazel hue, in beautiful contrast with the
mn. In splendour the monarch of day arose, and
bis ethereal race. All appeared happy, hilarioos
ious day. At an early hour flags were devated on
lued by a gentle breeze, they waved gracefully,
sollections in the minds of many; streamers of
led across Colbome Street in different places, and
./Z
• 1«BK
PUBIX
^^•'•^'' .: !!^!Tto^^
TIU
LOCAL HISTORY. 347
triumphal arches were erected on several streets. Significant emblems of
loyalty and gratitude were displayed in rich profusion on the Manchester
House ; these consisted of the Crescent, Tricolour and Union Jack unfurled
together. Everything bespoke the satisfaction of the people. A procession
was formed at the Public Square — ^now called Victoria Park — about noon, and
proceeded to the depot of the Buffalo, Brantford and Qoderich Bailway to
await the arrival of His Excellency the Governor-General, who was expected
at that hour, but owing to unforeseen causes did not arrive till a quarter to
two o'clock. The assembled crowd waited with great patience, and manifested
the greatest anxiety to get a glimpse of His Excellency. When he and his
suite arrived a dense multitude pressed towards the cars and gave him hearty
cheers. Several volleys of cannon were also fired in succession, which echoed
^through the vale, and attested the presence of Her Majesty's representative.
A procession was immediately formed, the front of which was occupied by a
number of carriages, one of which contained the Governor-General, Lady Head,
the Sheriff of Brant, and the Mayor. The pupils of our Public Schools, the
different companies of firemen, and the Corporation, came next in order after
the vehicles. The procession, with flags waving and music playing, marched
through King, Colbpme and Market Streets, and finally assembled on the
Square in front of the Court House, where a series of addresses were presented
to His Excellency. After the illustrious guest and attendants ascended the
platform, his Worship the Mayor stepped forward and read the following
address :
" To His Excellency Sir Ei/niund Walker Mead^ Bart., Govemor-Qeneral of
British North America, Vice^Admir^ of the same, etc,, etc., etc
" May it please Your Excellency : .
"We, the Mayor and Corporation <rf. ti^'Town of Brantford, hail with
pleasure the arrival of Tour Excellency in this portion of Canada, and most
cordially welcome you to the Town of Brantford, whose inhabitants, we assure
Tour Excellency, are ever ready to extend to the representative here of the
honoured and beloved Sovereign of the British Empire that large degree of
respect which is justly due to Her Majesty by a loyal and truly devoted people,
who rejoice at all times to evince their strong and unwavering attachment to
the British Crown and Constitution, and their deep interest for the success of
the British arms, in conjunction with those of her allies, in the prosecution of a
war for the suppression of Russian despotism and the extension of the area of
human freedom.
" In the general prosperity which has of late years characterized the Upper
Province, we are glad to be able to point to the steady progress in wealth of
this the County Town of what has been justly termed ' The Garden of Canada.'
With the prospect of soon seeing our railways and Grand River navigation
thoroughly completed, we think we can perceive at no distant day our youthful
and progressing town take its proper position among the cities of Canada.
" We trust that Tour Excellency's tour through W estern Canada may be one
of pleasure, and that Tour Excellency and family may long remain in the
enjoyment of health and happiness amongst us.
" (Signed), W. Mathews, Mayor."
21
348 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
His Excellency replied as follows :
" Mr, Mayor and GentleTtien of the Corporation of the City of Brantford :
" The fertility and progress of this section of Upper Canada has made me
anxious to visit it, and I only regret that my present visit is so short a one. Here,
as elsewhere, I find the strongest evidence of attachment to the Queen and
British Constitution, whilst I have to thank you cordially for the reception
with which you have honoured me. The completion of your railways and other
public improvements wi^ no doubt give an additional stimulus to the prosperity
which marks the present condition of Brantford and the surrounding country.
I trust on my next visit to see undoubted signs of the maintenance of this pros-
perity, and of the honourable progress making by the good Town of Brantford.''
. Allen Good, Esq., Warden, read the following address on behalf of the county ;
"To His Excellency Sir Edinund Walker Head, Bart, Govemor-Oeneral of
British North America, etc., etc.
" May it please Your Excellency :
" I have the honour to appear before you as Warden of the County of Brant,
and to tender to Your Excellency, on behalf of the -county, a hearty welcome
within its precincts. The short notice which we have had of Your Excellency's
arrival, and the limited time which you can spare from your other duties to
remain amongst us, have prevented me from calling the Council together —
residing as the members do in difierent parts of the county — to meet you in
the manner I should have wished.
. " I have no hesitation, however, in stating to your Excellency that the inhabit-
ants of this county yield to no portion of this valuable appendage of the
British Crown in loyalty to our Most Gracious Queen, and in devoted attach-
ment to the free constitution under which we live. The untiring industry of
the inhabitants, and the efforts made by them to promote their own and the
county's prosperity, have under Providence made the county what it now is ;
and I cannot entertain a doubt that when the national advantages as to soil,
water-power and other privileges shall have been fully developed and worked
out, the County of Brant will be behind none in the Pmvince in everything
which can make it one of the richest and most respectable in the land.
" The great facilities afforded by the railways for the conveyance of produce
to the markets of the United States, with the free admission of our agricultural
productions into that country, have very materially assisted to promote this
state of things, by affording to the farmers of the county all the advantages of
a large and increasing demand. The inhabitants fondly cherish the hope that
nothing may prevent the reciprocal feeling on aU matters of trade which now
exists between the two countries from being more fully carried out and acted
upon, fully impressed as they are that the more intimate the connection in all
matters of business, the more rapidly and the more fully will the resources of
Canada be developed. The inhabitants of this county have viewed with anxiety,
and have watched with solicitude, the various phases and movements of the
struggle now pending between Her Majesty and her august ally the Emperor
of France, against the despotic power of Russia. Never in the history of the
country has a war been more generally supported in the length and breadth of
LOCAX mSTOBT. 349
the land. It may indeed be called a struggle between liberty and despotism,
between free institutions 'and unmitigated thraldom. That the efforts of the
allied troops may be crowned with success is, I may venture to assure Your
Excellency, the prayer of every inhabitant of the County of Brant.
" Signed on behalf of the county,
"Allen Good, Warden."
The following address from the Mechanics' Institute was presented by Mr.
James Woodyatt : " We, the President and Committee of the Brantford
Mechanics' Institute, hail with pleasure your visit to our rising town, and
gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity thus afforded of tendering, in behalf
of the members oi the Institute, a warm and heartfelt welcome. Believing as
we do that the happiness of a people is inseparably connected with the im-
provement of the mind, we feel the greater readiness in approaching Your
Excellency with the gratulations of an institution which seeks to promote this
object, and thereby the happiness of the esteemed Governor of this country.
The great benefit of such institutions to the working classes has been abun-
dantly tested in the mother country, for they are found in every city, town and
village ; and some of the greatest men of the age have not thought it beneath
them to lend to them the influence of their name aud their talents. This
pleasing fact leads us to hope that our own country, which is making such rapid
pn^ress in other respects, may in this be equally favoured. Indeed, we cannot
refrain from referring to the valuable assistance the Government of this Province
has given to our own Institute, in common with others throughout the country.
Nor can we neglect this opportunity of tendering our gratitude to your Excel-
lency, the head of the Government. The Mechanics' Institute of this town
would most respectfully solicit the honour of enrolling the name of your Ex-
cellency as an honorary member of this Institute, that there it may stand
beside the name of the late Governor-General, Lord Elgin, as an encourage-
ment to the young mechanic to seek to be great by being wise and good, and
as a fondly cherished memorial of this first and welcome vi^t to our town. And
may the hand of a kind overruling Providence be around you in all your journey-
ings; may He grant you and Lady Head health and happiness; and may you
long rule over a peaceful, contented and intelligent, people.
'•James WooDyAiT,
" President Brantford Mechanics Institute."
After the addresses were delivered a series of cheers were given for the Queen,
the Governor-General, Lady Head, and the allied army. The procession, after
being again organized, proceeded to the Town Hall, where an excellent lunch
was prepared, to enjoy which about sixty of our leading men sat down. At the
conclusion the usual loyal toasts were proposed and drank with enthusiasm,
after which His Excellency and suite were escorted to the depot, leaving about
4 o'clock for Toronto. The Governor-General left with very favourable impres-
sions regarding the prosperity and beauty of the town, and the loyalty and
hospitality of the inhabitants. During their visit here Lady Head was enter-
tained at Dr. Digby's.
350 history of brant county.
Destructive Fire.
On Friday morning, the 17th February, 1860, between 3 and 4 o'clock, a fire
broke out in either Thos. McLean & C!o.'s dry goods store or in Breudon's drug
shop — ^for it could not be definitely ascertained which — and rapidly extended its
ravages over a large area of the best business portion of the town, leaving it covered
with blackened ruin& It must have made considerable progress before it was
discovered, as two young men who were sleeping over McLean's store had barely
time to escape before the building was filled with fire and smoke. The flames
extended rapidly westward, destroying in their course many of the beat build-
ings in the town. The following is a compiled list of losses and insurances :
Costello & Toung, brick block, estimated loss, $4,500 ; covered by insurance in
Phoenix Insurance C!o., of London. Cartan & Dee, brick block, estimated
damage, $8,000 ; insured in £2quitable Fire Insurance Co. for S5,000 ; groceries
and dry goods, estimated damage, $2,000 ; insured in the Gore Mutual for $4,000.
Bank of British North America, the Emporium Building, estimated damage,
$4,000 ; insured in the Royal for $4,800. Lovejoy's Buildings, estimated
damage, $13,000 ; insured in the Western for $4,000 ; Liverpool & London for
$2,000 ; Soyal, $2,600. Judge Jones, brick buildings, estimated damage, $2,500 ;
insured in the Boyal for $2,400. Mrs. Colmer, frame building and furniture,
estimated damage, $800 ; no insurance. Mrs. Smith, frame building and stock
of groceries, estimated damage, $800 ; insured for $600 in Great Western, of
Philadelphia. Mr. Brendon, stock of drugs, chemicals, etc., estimated damage,
$4,000 ; no insurance. S. Morphy, building, furniture and stock of jewellery,
estimated damage, $4,000 ; insured in the State Insurance Co. for $2,000. Ford
& Brother, stock of groceries and store fixtures, estimated damage, $1,000 ;
insured in Phoenix Co., of London, for $1,600. Oddfellows' Lodge, fixtures,
etc., estimated damage, $1,000 ; insured in the Equitable Co., of London, for
$800. R Schackell, fixtures and stock of groceries, no insurance ; loss unknown.
N. Devereux, i-emoving stock ; damages, $182. T. McLean & Co., fixtures, stock
of dry goods and books of the firm, estimated damage, $12,000 ; insured in
Phoenix, London, and Equitable for $4,000 each ; State, $2,000 ; total, $10,000.
Eocpoaitor office, removing stock, estimated damage, $300 ; insured in Western
and Provincial. Nimmo & Co., stock of wines, liquors and groceries, estimated
damage, $10,000 ; insured in the Phoenix, London, for $4,000. Dr. Preston,
office fixtures, about $200. 6. Malloch, law office, books, etc., estimated
damage, $400 ; covered by insurance. G. R VanNorman's law office, fixtures,
books (papers saved), estimated damage, $800 ; no insurance. W. H. Morgan,
Indian Commissioner, office fixtures and papers, loss not estimated. P. B. Long's
law office, fixtures, etc., loss about $50. Division Court Office, fixtures (papers
saved), loss, $100 ; no insurance. J. Wilkinson's jewellery stock, partial loss,
$300 ; no insurance. Mr. Gk)rman's shoe store, loss trifling. Mr. W. Ix)ng's
shoe store, loss trifling ; no insurance. Donald McKay's harness-shop, damage
to stock, $800; covered by insurance. Mr. George Newton, innkeeper,
furniture, damage, $200. C. Stewart's cabinet shop and furniture, damage, $400 ;
covered with insurance. Bank of Montreal, frame buildings, damage, $400 ; no
insurance. Johnson, barber, loss trifling. Norwood, barber, loss trifling. Mr.
P. L. Allen's grocery store, nothing saved — damages, $1,400 ; no insurance.
LOCAL HISTORY. 351
K B. Wood's law office fixtures, loss trifliDg. Dr. Sutton, dentist, fixtures and
stock, damage, $200 ; no insurance. A. Wanless, bookbinder, shop fixtures,
books and tools — all lost— damage, $500 ; no insuraDce. Courier office, type,
presses, etc., damas[e, $3,000 ; insurance, $2,400, in Gore Mutual Insurance Co.
James Smith, saddler, damage retuoving stock, $240 ; covered by insurance.
Ritchie & Russel, grocery stock destroyed and damaged, estimated loss, $1,400 ;
insured. R. McLean, grocery, loss, $100.
Some of these lost all they possessed ; others suffered only a partial loss. The
fire gained a strong headway before any attempt could be made to ^rrest it It
raged in difiTerent directions at the same time ; it was carried across the street
by an explosion of some chemicals in Mr. Brendon's drug store ; these circum-
stances taken together increased the difficulty of checking its progress at any
one place. The firemen and citizens generally turned out with the utmost
promptitude, and mEule almost superhuman efforts to airest the progress of the
flames ; but their labours were rendered abortive for some time by the difficulty
of obtaining a sufficient supply of water, as well as from some bad sections of
hose, which prevented the engines from being brought promptly into operation.
Murder of a Mail Carrier, and Robbery of the Mail Bag.
A double crime was perpetrated on the night of Thursday, April 14th, 1859,
on the Paris Road, about three miles from Brantf ord. The unfortunate victim's
name was Launcelot Adams ; he was upwards of sixty years of age. and was
the father of J. Q. Adams, wl)o keeps a tavern in Oakland Township. An
inquest was held before Coroner Balfour on Friday afternoon. The following
persons acted as jurors : Allen Good, Foreman ; George Smith, Henry Moyle,
Wm. Moyle, Wtxl Smith, Geo. McVicker, James Randall, George Brown, D. W.
Hart, Wm. Irvine, John Snider, Jr., and R Quay. After hearing evidence with
regard to the particular way in which the body of the deceased was found, as
well as that of Drs. £. T. Bown and R. Henwood, who made a post moriem
examination of the body, and pronounced the man to have been killed by
being shot in the left side of the head, the Coroner adjourned the inquest to
Saturday.
In the meantime the following coloured people residing in the East Ward
were arrested on suspicious circumstances :
Harriet Moore, Emeline Sinclair, John Moore, Robert Over and Joseph Arm-
strong. The premises in which they lived were searched, and a double and a
single-barrelled gun were found, the former being loaded. After extracting
the charges from the barrels the shot was found to correspond in size to that
taken from the head of the murdered man. An examination of these persons
was held on Saturday afternoon, before the Coroner, the Mayor, T. Broughton,
John Elliott, John Turner, Esqrs., and others.
Moore said he had not used the gun for a month, but afterwards admitted
having used it on the preceding Wednesday ; he said positively he had not
been out hunting for three months.
Over said he had not been out of the house a single night during the whole
week ; but witnesses were produced whose veracity could be relied upon, and
who testiiied to the fact of having seen Moore and Over walking out towards
352 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the Holmedale Mill on Friday morning, between six and seven o'clock, having
a single-barrelled gun, and that they returned in about twenty minutes or half
an hour, having each a gun, one of which was double-barrelled.
But in order that the reader may readily comprehend the manner in which
the crime was traced to the guilty parties, the following evidence is given
verbatim, as taken l>efore the Coroner.
Emeline Sinclair, sworn : '* Never saw the deceased to my knowledge ; have
known Moore for six months ; he is my brother-in-law ; he was at home
Thursday night ; am sure of that ; he has not been out shooting for two weeks ;
am sure he went to bed between ten and eleven o'clock on Thursday night ;.
know Over ; he lives in the same house as Moore ; am acquainted with Arm-
strong ; Over was at home on Thursday evening ; took tea at home ; saw
Moore and Over that night between ten and eleven o'clock ; have no clock ;
heard the clock strike ten (the witness probably meant the town clock) ; sa^
them at six o'clock next morning ; neither Moore nor Over had any money in
the beginning of last week ; they had no money on Friday morning ; the
Dorcas Society kept us all winter ; we got about two shillings a week ; Mr.
Weyms told me he found part of a bank bill in the house ; Moore did not
give Armstrong any money on Friday morning ; swear this positively." Dr.
Bown then said to witness that Moore told him he gave Armstrong $1.50 on
Friday morning, and Armstrong acknowledged that he received it. Witness :
" It is a lie ; Moore slept on the floor on Thursday night ; he pulled his boots off
mother was up during the night ; Moore and Armstrong were seen in town
during the day ; they had not their guns out." •
Dr. J. Y. Bown, sworn : Saw the prisoners in the cells ; examined their
(finger) nails to see if he could discover an}' blood ; held up Over's nails to the
light ; discovered something red ; looked at it through a microscope, and swear
that what I took from his nails was sealing-wax ; the wax was of a resinous
nature, and could be dissolved ; Over said positively that he had not used
sealing-wax that day. On April 20th Moore and Over were subjected to another
examination before Magistrates Weyms, Mathews and Pruyn, on which occa-
sion the accused adhered to their former story, while some six witnesses swore
to the fact of having seen them pass with one gun and return in about twenty
minutes with two guns. On April 21st Armstrong, one of the suspected parties^
after a solemn admonition from the Magistrates, Messrs. Mathews and Weyms,
made a confession ; but as he, on the occasion of the trial of Moore and Over,
under oath stated that he was not on oath at the time he made the confession,
and wished to screen their respective families from any participation in their
crime, it is deemed prudent to omit his confession, as his evidence was taken at
the trial which took place at the Assize Court held here, commencing on the
26th of April — Chief-Justice Draper presiding.
The verdict of the Coroner's Jury was as follows : •' In the opinion of the
Jury the said Launcelot Adams came to his death by being shot through the
head on the night of Thursday, the 14th day of April, 1859, on the road leading
from Brantford to Paris, in the Township of Brantford and County of Brant,
by a man known to the Jury as Robert Over, and that the said Over was
assisted in the said murder by two other men, named respectively John Moore
and Joseph A. Armstrong. The Jury therefore consider it to be their duty, on
LOCAL HISTORY. 353
a careful iuvestigation of all the circumstances and evidence laid before them,
to return a verdict of wilful murder against Bobert Over, John Moore and Jos.
A. Armstrong. (Signed), Allen Good, Foreman."
At the Assize Court, on the 29th April, 1859, the prisoners Moore and Over
were arraigned, and on their arrais^nment pleaded not guilty. M. 0. Cameron,
Esq,, Q.C., prosecuted on behalf of the Crown, and K B. Wood, Esq., and Mr.
Freeman, of Hamilton, defended the prisoners. The case \vas opened by M.
C. Cameron, Esq., on behalf of the Crown, in a lucid statement of facts to be
proved in evidence against the prisoners. Jonathan Hale proved the position
the deceased held with regard to the Post Office Department, the finding of
the body, et^a Alex. Clement testified to the facts that he was a clerk in the
Brantford Post Office, saw the letters which were opened when the mail was
robbed ; they had been variously sealed with gum, sealing-wax, etc.
Dr. E. T. Bown, sworn, said he was an Associate Coroner for the County of
Brant ; never saw Adams till after he was killed ; went up to the spot in the
morning, made but a slight examination then ; in the afternoon assisted at the
post mortem ; have no doubt the dece^ed came to his death from a gunshot
wound, inflicted a little above and in front of the right ear. There were
several perforations of the bone into the brain, and one large one about the
size of a half-dollar ; some of the shot passed through the brain, and lodged on
the opposite side. The jugular vein was pierced by the shot, also the parotid
artery. A part of the jaw-bone was torn off as well ; and a quantity of No. 4
shot was found lodged in the base of the brain. By the Court. — Examined
the rest of the body, but found no other wound or injury. A part of the cap
he wore was torn off on the side the wound was inflicted ; a part of the wool
from the inside of the cap, and some fur, were driven into the brain. Should
think the muzzle of the gun, when the shot was fired, was about six or eight
feet from the head of the deceased ; had the shot been fired by the deceased
himself, the course of the shot would have been upwards, and in a different
direction.
By Mr. Wood. — The shot must have been fired a little in front of the mail
carrier, and with a slight elevation, as the course of the shot must have been
upwards and backwards ; it must also have been fired from the east or north-
east side of the road ; the person who fired the shot must have stood nearly
opposite the driver on the side of the road, but, as before observed, a little in
front ; the cap was not singed. Have no doubt that he was killed instantly.
Only one charge could have struck the deceased.
John Good and Matthew Brophy corroborated the statements of the other
witnesses as to the finding of the body, the space of time which elapsed be-
tween each shot — not more than five minutes, etc.
Joseph A. Armstrong, sworn : " Know both prisoners at the bar, one of them
very well and the other slightly. Recollect the 14th of April. Saw both the
prisoners that day at their own house. I saw Moore that afternoon in town at
Biggs'. Saw him that day at his own house. Saw Over first that day between
five and six o'clock. The two prisoners and myself went out that evening
about 8.30 o'clock. Went across to the railway, passed up to the Paris Road,
up that road to the toll-gate, and past the brick tavern. We went out to steal
potatoes, but we took a double-barrelled gun with us. Over carried the gun.
354 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
After we passed the brick tavern on the Paris Koad, Over asked me if I was
a man ? I replied, I was. He then asked me if I could be depended upon.
I said, yes. He then proposed to rob the mail. I asked him what we should
do with the man. Over said he would make him get out of the waggon, or
tumble out. I asked him how he would make him tumble out He put bis
hand on the gun and said, ' This old thing never lies.' I said, ' Tou wouldn't
shoot the man ? ' ^e said, ' Dead men tell no tales.' Moore and I said it would
be a shame to shoot the man, and that it would be strange if three of us could
not manage one man without killing him. He said if he saw us we should be
sold. I replied I would rather run the risk of his knowing me again than th&t
of killing him. He then agreed not to shoot the driver. We then went on,
passed the toll-gate, and heard a buggy coming. Over said, ' I guess that's the
buggy coming now.' He then placed Moore and me on the left, side of the
road, about ten yards apart, while he took a position on the right side of
the road, nearer Paris. Over said he would hail the man, and if the horse
started, we were to catch him, take the mail out of the waggon, and let the
man go." He (the witness) next heard a shot fired, and sprang across the road,
and just as he was getting over the fende he heard another. He ran about forty
rods up Mr. Good's field, and then stopped, thinking that if he did not go back
Over would shoot him, for fear he would be a witness against him ; he then
returned. When he got back Over was leading the horse down the ravine,
Moore having not yet come up. Over said to witness, " You are a pretty man
to run." **I said, 'You promised you would not shoot the man.' He said,' It is
done now, and it is no time to talk.' As he led the horse down the hill the
man fell out. Over led the horse about t«n yards further, and then stopped
him ; he then went back to the man and appeared to examine his pocketa. I
said to myself a man who could do that could do anything. Over returned to
the waggon and we took the mails out. He said, ' Armstrong, you and Moore
take these two bags, and I will carrj'' this with the gun.* We took the bags
down near the railway towards the ravine, cut them open and commenced
examining the mails. Over cut the bags open, and Moore and I opened and
examined the letters for money. While we were at this we saw a buggy pass-
ing towards Paris, and a man walking up hill in front of it This was about
three-quarters of an hour after the mail driver was killed When Over saw
this he said, *Boys, we can't roost here any longer; they may see the horse and
buggy standing, and come down the hill to see what is the matter, and may get
on the track and follow us. We then took the bags which were not opened, and
went across the railway towards the bush, and continued examining the
letters. We found some money in the mails ; it was all Canada money except
a hundred dollar American bill. We stopped there a while, and then went to
another place and finished opening the letters. Then we went home to Over's
house, where I stayed from five to ten minutes."
By Mr. Cameron. — ** There was no light there at the time ; either Moore or
Over lighted a candle ; I had the $100 bill, but on Friday night I gave it to
Moore ; I stopped at Mr. Wilkes', near the distillery, towaids Holmedale ; the
place is generally called *' Whiskey Hollow ;" I had $10 besides the $100 bill ;
I had one $4 bill, one $2 bill, and three $1 bills ; Moore had $20, and Over $21 ;
there was one $20 bill ; it wa^ a bright moonlight night ; had some conversation
LOCAL BISTORT. 355
with the other prisoners, Moore and Over, after I made my confession. Both
Moore and Over said if we stuck out that we were innocent we should get ofif,
as there was nothing against us. On our return home we brought the double-
barrelled gun as far as G. S. Wilkes' bush, and Over hid it."
By Mr. E. B. Wood. — " Have been in gaol before for stealing ; got out on the
Monday before the murder was committed ; had a conversation with Mr. Nelson
before I left the gaol, and told him I wanted a pistol ; did not tell him what I
wanted it for ; I wanted the pistol because I was going to Fraser's River ; did
not know Over till after I got out of gaol ; have kuowu Moore since last fall ;
never went stealing with Moore ; got out of gaol at 6 o'clock in the morning
and went to Moore ; did not go to see him for anything particular ; did not
steal anything since till the occasion of the mail robbery ; went to Moore's that
Monday about 11 or 12 o'clock, and remained there till afternoon ; we strolled
through the town ; don't remember what 1 did on Tuesday ; Thursday morning
left home about 10 o'clock; was about town; saw Moore that afternoon at
Bigg's, near Wilkes' old mill ; he and I went to Over's ; much of what I stated
before the magistrates in my confession was false ; knew nothing of the mail
passing between Paris and Brantford till Over told me ; nothing was said about
robbing the mail before we started ; we took the gun along to shoot geese if we
saw any ; we went out to steal potatoes : Over took his position on the north
side of the road, and Moore and myself on the south side ; Over was about forty
yards from me, and Moore about ten yards when the gun was fired ; I ran over
into the field fearing Over would shoot me ; Over stood on the right hand side
of the road going towards Paris, and shot when the mail carrier was nearly
opposite ; I helped to pillage the mails ; I had $10 of the money as my share
and the $100 bill On Friday evening I gave back to Moore all the money I
had except a $2 bill ; I gave the hundred dollars back to Moore on Friday
evening ; don't know whether Over was present then or not ; don't think any
other person was present when I gave the money back to Moore ; when I said
in my confession I did not go further than the Kerby Mill I told a lie ; was
not then under oath ; no person intimated to me that I should be more leniently
dealt with if I confessed the truth ; I told only one lie in my confession ; I
went into the house with Over and Moore on the night of the murder ; we
divided the money at Over's ; when we returned the door was opened by some
one inside ; think it was Mrs. Sinclair ; I remained there about ten minutes ; I
saw Mrs. Sinclair there, at least I supposed it was her by the light from the
stove ; did not see her after the candle was lighted ; nothing was said about
the robbery while I was there ; I took the $100 bill and the $20 bill from the
same letter ; it was agreed that nothing should be said to any other person
about the matter ; I said nothing about it ; I spent the $2 bill I had ; a
young man whom I did not know changed it for me near the canal ; he was
a stranger, and I asked him te change the bill ; I gave a one dollar bill to a
woman and she said it was bad, and that, I suppose, led to my arrest ; the
statement in my confession that we divided the money at Lake's farm is false."
By Mr. Cameron. — A part of a $100 bill found in Over's house was shown,
and the witness said it looked like the one he found in the mail ; " the reason
I said we did not divide the money at Over's house was that I did not want to
involve Moore's and Over's families. Had no conversation with Moore and
356 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Over within a few days ; have had conversation with them since my confes-
sion. Over and Moore asked me if I was sworn when I made it ; I said no.
They then said it amounted to nothing, and wanted me to swear it was false ;
think it was last Monday or Tuesday that this conversation took place; it was
since the Court commenced. It was about 12 o'clock when we returned from
the robbery to Over's."
Other witnesses corroborated the evidence of Armstrong, and after examin-
ing four or five witnesses for the defence, Mr. Wood, counsel for the prisoners,
addressed the jury on their behalf with great force and eloquence, and argued
with much ingenuity to weaken the effect of the testimony for the Crown ; but
in vain ; their guilt was too clearly proven.
Mr. Cameron, Q.C., followed on behalf of the Crown, and summed up the
evidence with more than his usual ability, which Ls of the highest order. His
Lordship having read over the evidence to the jury, spoke for over an hour,
commenting upon every fact adduced in testimony, and pointing out its bear-
ing upon the case. His charge was clear, dignified, impressive and impartial.
The jury having retired to consider their verdict, returned in an hour with a
verdict of ** Guilty." In breathless silence, his Lordship, Chief -Justice Draper*
then said : " Robert Over and John Moore, the jury have found you guilty of
murder. Have you, or either of you, anything; to say why sentence of death
should not be passed on you according to law ?" To which Over answered,
'* I am not the person who shot the man." His Lordship then addressed the
prisoners at the bar in a strain of impressive eloquence, and with a dignity
never before surpassed on a similar occasion. He expressed his full concur-
rence in the verdict of the jury, and concluded by sentencing Moore and Over
to be hanged on Tuesday, the 7th of June, 1859. On Tuesday, May 5th, 1859,
Joseph Armstrong was arraigned before the Court as an accomplice in the
murder of Launcelot Adams, to which charge he pleaded guilty. He was
sentenced by the Court to be hanged on Tuesday, the 7th day of June, 1859.
After conviction, Armstrong stated that himself and Over had attempted to
throw a train on the Great Western Railway off the track, between Paris and
Harrisburg, with intent to pillage and rob the passengers. They placed an iron
rail, a three-inch plank, and some fence rails across the track. The engine, a
heavy English one, snapped the iron rail in pieces, and ran over the plank
without getting off the track ; the engineer then stopped the train. Several
Great Western officials corroborated the statement of Armstrong as to the find-
ing of the obstructions on the railroad on the night of the 12th of March, 1859.
On or before May 20th, 1859, Moore admitted that Over shot the mail
carrier. On Monday, 6th of June, the day previous to the one named for the
execution of Moore and Over, they, in the presence of W. Mathews, Esq., J.P.,
S. Mair, J.P., and James Weyms, J.P., made a full confession as to the murder ;
this did not materially differ from that of Armstrong. Furthermore they con-
fessed to having placed the obstructions on the Great Western Railway on the
12th March, 1859. Over 8,000 people were present to witness the execution,
which took place a little after 9 o'clock on Tuesday, 7th of June, 1859. After
hanging about 20 minutes, the Gaol Surgeon, E. GriflBn, Esq., ML)., pronounced
them to be dead. Neither of their necks were broken, so that they must have
died from strangulation.
LOCAL HISTORY. 357
Armstrong, whose sentence had been commuted to penitentiary for life, ^as
removed thither on the following day. By order of the Sheriff, J. Smith, Esq.,
he was conveyed in a private vehicle to Harrisburg, thence by Great Western
and Grand Trunk Railways to the Provincial Penitentiary at Kingston. He
remained in prison for about 20 years, and for having assisted the guards in
quelling an uprising of the prisoners, was pardoned on condition that he left
the country.
The Fenian Raid of 1866.
No city in the Dominion exhibited warmer feelings of patriotism, or exerted
itself more zealously in behalf of its country and flag during the disgraceful
and lawless rai^ of the Fenians, than did the little City of Brantford. Money
was freely appropriated by the city and subscribed by citizens to provide for the
comfort of troops quartered here ; volunteer companies were msed from among
the young men of the city^ and a large number of the city's children, who were
engaged in business at Chicago and elsewhere, threw up their position and has-
tened to their homes to take part in the effort to suppress the threatened inva-
sion of a host of foreign ruffians. These returning loyalists were met at the
railroad depot by a deputation of citizens with a military band, and received in
a way characteristic of the warm-hearted people of the city.
On the first of June, 1866, intelligence reached the city that the Fenians had
crossed the Niagara River from Black Kock near Buffalo, and had established
themselves at what was known as Fort Erie, and that more were constantly
arriving. The troops here were ordered to be ready to march at a moment's
notice. When it was reported that another column of the Fenians had effected
a crossing at or near Windsor and were marching on London, the greatest excite-
ment prevailed. On'the day following, the Boyal troops attacked the enemy near
Fort Erie, and succeeded in capturing fifty-nine prisoners and a quantity of
arms and other munitions of war. The prispners were brought to Brantford
under a strong escort of troops, and with great difficulty lodged in the county
gaol. Their arrival at the depot was met by an immense throng of the excited
populace, who might, but for the presence and determination of the militia,
have executed summary punishment on the miscreants. Such acts of violence
in civilized communities are of course not to be countenanced, but if ever the
acts of a tumultuous congregation of outraged people were justifiable, it would
be under circumstances such as the above.
On Monday, June 18th, 1866, No. 1 Company, Brantford Rifles, was ordered
to march to Niagara, but when they reached Fort Erie the order was counter-
manded, and the troops, much crestfallen, returned home.
After all immediate trouble with the Fenians was at an end, it became known
that a regiment of militia would be stationed at Brantford, and movements
were at once put on foot for the reception of the troops and to provide them
with quarters. The Town Council rented the Kerby House and buildings
belonging to it, which were repaired and quickly put in order. The large brick
stable at the back of the house was transformed into a comfortable barrack
capable of holding about two hundred men. An appropriation was also made
for the erection of a drill shed.
358
mSTOBT OF BRANT COUNTY.
On September 29, 1866, the Volunteers, who had been encamped at Thorold,
retorned home, and on the same day abont sixty men of the Seventh Boyal
Fusiliers arrived. The main body of the same r^;iment arrived on the seventh
of October, and the remaining portion on the eighth of the same month. They
were accompanied by their band of thirty-eight pieces.
'' H " Battery, which had been stationed at London for two years, passed
through the city en rotite for Toronto, and camped on the Agricultural Society
Grounds on the night of Friday, July 5, 1867. On the Monday night follow-
ing, the battery that was to replace " H " Battery at London encamped on the
same ground.
The Seventh Fusiliers left Brantford on Wednesday, March 24,. 1867, aft^ a
pleasant sojourn of several months, and on the same day the left wing of the
Seventeenth Il^ment, consisting of live companies, in iJl about 300 men, took
up their quarters in the city. They remained until September 4, when they
were replaced by the Sixty-ninth Begiment, which was fresh from Ireland.
This regiment favoured the people with their presence for an extended period,
and since their departure no other regulars have quartered in the city.
PART IV.
TOWNSHIP HISTORY.
BRANTFORD TOWNSHIP.
This township, the largest and most central of the County of Brant, is a
level surface of seventy-nine thousand two hundred and forty-seven acres,
thoroughly well cleared, and containing some of the best wheat-growing land
in Canada. It is bounded on the north by the Township of South Dumfries ;
on the south-west by the Township of Oakland ; on the south-east by the
Townships of Tuscarora and Onondaga ; on the east by the Township of An-
caster, in the County of Wentworth ; on the west by the Township of Burford.
It contains the Villages of Cainsville, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon and
Langford, and is watered by the tortuous current of the Grand River, which
enters the township at Paris, on the northern town line ; also in its western
district by the smaller stream known as Whiteman's and Mount Pleasant
Creeks, with several tributary brooks ; and on the eastern side by two rivulets,
once famous for the trout which have since unaccountably disappeared, and
named Hynd's and Fairchild s Creeks. Sinc6 the destruction of the forests
these creeks have considerably decreased in size, but are still of use in irri-
gating the country through which they flow.
The settlement of this township dates from the commencement of the pres:nt
century. The first white settler was Mr. John File, who found the entire region
covered with forest, oak, pine and maple, and used as a hunting ground by the
Six Nation Indians of the Iroquois tribe, who considered the whole region on
each side of the Grand River as their indefeasible property.
The earliest settled district of this township was among the oak openings on
the banks of the brook known, from the name of the first settler along its
margin, as " FaircBild's Creek." There the land reclaimed from the primeval
forest repaid the labours of its first cultivators by a return of forty bushels of
grain to the acre. The fame of its fertility became known, and a sprinkling of
settlers soon gathered on either side of the creek and to the eastern bank of
Grand River. Among these pioneers of Brantford Township were John Oles,
Senr., and Isaac Whiting ; also Major Westbrook. The latter was the son of
one of the veterans of the War of the Revolution, Mr. Anthony Westbrook,
the representative of an old English family of high Tory and Cavalier principles,
who settled for two generations in New i ork State, but refused to acknowledge
the new order of .things, or change the Union Jack for the Stars and Stripes.
He cast in his lot with the other Loyalists who gave up a settled home in a
prosperous country to seek a precarious sustenance in the unsettled wilds of the
Canadian forest Such men were no ordinary immigrants. Under the stroke
of their stalwart arms the forests disappeared, the land gave forth its increase,
the wild beast and the painted savage receded, English-speaking Canada, with
362 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
all its wealth of cultivated soil and settled country, came into being. Among
the earliest of these settlers, as has been said, was Mr. John Oles the elder,
who came to Brantford Township in 1806, and found himself in a wilderness,
without a track through its forest except the trail known to Indian hunters,
and no white neighbours nearer than the few dwellers in the log shanties around
the mill at Brantford. In 1810 there were but three families settled in the
region between Brantford and Ancaster, to the eastern side of the Grand River.
\^ere the undulating ground beside Fairchild's Creek indicates the alluvial
deposits of some mightier water-course in prehistoric ages, several settlers took
up land which amply repaid their labours ; and in twenty-five years from
its earliest settlement, the entire township had become a well cultivated and
thriving settlement.
In fact, Brantford Township has an earlier and more prosperous history than
Brantford Town. Where now a stately city of over ten thousand inhabitants
extends its brilliant streets, a village by the curvature of the Grand River con*
tained a few Indian huts an<i two log houses, owned by John Stalts and Enos
Bunnell. The site of this first rude beginning of Brantford was called Mississ-
agua Hill, from the fact that it was a favourite camping ground of the Mississ-
ao^ua Indians of the Iroquois tribe, settled on the neighbouring reserve of the
Grand River. Such was the condition of Brantford as late as 1810. In that
year, however, the Government of Upper Canada opened what is now the
principal road leading through the County of Brant from Hamilton to London.
When the war broke out in 1812 a considerable sum was expended in improving
this road for military reasons ; it was throughout crosswayed with logs in order
to render it available for the transport of troops and military stores. This road
was in 1815 much improved, being planked for a considerable distance, graded,
and, when the requisite labour could be obtained, levelled up with gravel.
Although still the leading thoroughfare of Brant County, the " Old London
Road " has never been a pleasant or satisfactory highway. A tradition survives
among the last survivors of the older generations that in the first decade of the
present century an American traveller from Boston passed through this region
and gave to several of the villages the names by which they are at present
known. Thus the hamlet now called Boston owes its ambitious designation to
the fact that the explorer in question found there four families, all of whom were
immigrants from his native city who had been venturous enough to seek a home in
the untrodden wilds of Western Canada. This part of Brant County was settled
by men who had no capital beyond a few necessaries and their own strong self-
reliance and sturdy arms. They had to endure privations and encounter hard-
ships which at the distance of sixty years seem like the fictions of a DeFoe.
One of the oldest residents in Caiusville has related how he had to drive to
Hamilton with an ox-team, through almost unbroken forest, in order to attend
at his post as juryman. The jury was at that time convened from a region as
large as a German principality, and so strong was the sense of public duty, that
although obliged to travel at their own expense and exposed to great hardships,
the jurymen of those primitive days never failed to answer to their names.
When the last verdict had been rendered and the court closed, the ox- team
was hitched up and the two days' drive through the woods was resumed. Well
was it when the wolves, hunger-driven through the oak forest, failed to over
y^r^/^hn^Le^^-^vV^'e/
BRANTFORD TOWNSHIP. 365
take the slow-moving equipage. As ]ate as 1830 the entire area of what is now
Brantford Township remained in the possession of the Six Nation Indians,
but at that date the town plot of Brantford and the noith part of the township
of the same name were deeded away, and further surrenders were made from
time to time until the whole township was ceded and settled. When a subdivision
was efiTected of the four original districts into which the Province of Upper Canada
was divided, this township was made a part of the Gore District, and was
incorporated in the County of Wentworth, until it was attached to the new
County of Brant on the formation of the latter in the year 1852.
The regular concessions in this township number from north to south ; the
lots are counted from west to east. The shape of the township is exceedingly
irregular, the settlement having been effected by purchases of land contracted
with the Indians through their representative, Captain Brant, and arranged
without the slightest regard to regularity.
The soil of the Township of Brantford is almost without exception admirably
adapted for agricultural purposes. West of the Grand River, and south of the
town line of South Dumfries as far as the second range east of the Mount Pleas-
ant Road, it is a fine sandy soil, level and with a gravel subsoil, very productive,
and with seemingly exhaustless wheat-growing power. This plain country ex-
tends on the east side of the river north of the Town of Brantford as far as
Paris, and for three or four miles on each side of the Grand River. To the
south of this region the soil is stronger, consisting of a rich clay loam. All
through the township the geological formation is limestone, with occasional
formations of gravel.
A leading episode in the history oF this township is the raid of the American
Greneral McArtbur, who with sbiiie'seven hundred cavalry, chiefly the Kentucky
Mounted Riflemen, invaded Canada by way of the Thames Valley, and on
through Oxford County and Burford Township, with the object of relieving an
American force then besieged by British troops at Fort Erie. Mr. John Oles,
already referred to as one of the oldest settlers of this township, was present
at the* repulse of this General at the bend of the Grand River. The river,
although the month was October, was unusually high, so much so that it would
have been hazardous for the invading army to attempt a passage. The eastern
branch was held by a force partly made up of Indians and partly of Canadian
malitia, who showed such a bold front to the invaders, several of whom fell at
the first fire exchanged across the river, that General McArthur abandoned all
idea of marching on Fo? t Erie, and at once retreatecf through Burford and the
Thames Valley to his own country. It is not the least noteworthy incident in
the annals of our county that this repulse of a well disciplined body of regular
troops was achieved by native Canadian soldiers unsupported by a single com-
pany of the old country regulars. There was at that time no bridge over the
Grand River at this point, the only means of crossing being an old scow navi-
gated by an Indian. Mr. Oles, who used to delight in fighting this battle over
again, was wont to tell how the Canadian soldiers entrenched themselves
under the shelter of an abutment of a bridge which had been swept away by a
spring freshet some years before, the Americans being posted in a farm-house
and its outbuildings on the other side Mr. Oles witnessed the death of a
Kentucky rifleman who had crept into a disused oven on the river bank, from
22
366 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
the vent hole of which he maintained a galling fire on the Canadian troops.
But a Canadian militiaman, taking aim at the vent hole of the oven, fired with
so accurate an aim that one loud cry was heard, and the American's fellow
soldiers dragged out his dead body, which was buried on the spot.
Disheartened at this repulse the raiders retired ; and thus, unaided by the
boasted prowess of foreign armies, Canadians defended Canada. Since that
memorable day, the township which we are describing ranks with those happy
countries which have no history. Unlike the Townships of South Dummes
and Burford, Brantford Township took no part in the insurrectionary move-
ment of 1837-38. Like the capital of Brant County, this township takes its
name from the remarkable Indian chief whose capacity for receiving the
lessons of civilization did so much to promote the well-being of his own
countrymen, and the peaceful settlement of the country around the reserve
which had been so generously granted to them by the British Government. It
is but seldom that the cession of American soil from the aborigines, who claim
by priority of tenure the right of ownership, has been so peaceably accom-
plished as by this redoubted chief of the once terrible Iroquois. And it is
remarkable that all the transfers of land effected in this township by the sole
agency of Captain Brant were conducted with an unimpeachable integrity
wnich, in 1811, drew forth from the members of a Government Committee
appointed to investigate Indian affairs, the following testimony : " Whether
Captain Joseph Brant did or did not on all occasions exQ^ute the trust reposed
in him faithfully towards the Indians, the trustees are unable to judge, no
evidence having been laid before them on that subject ; and it is only right to
observe that no improper conduct whatever has been imputed to him before
the trustees ; and they are therefore bound to assume that he discharged his
duty with due fidelity."
About three miles from the Town of Brantford stands an old frame church
buUt by the Mohawk chief who has given his name to town and township. It
has no pretensions to architectural correctness, being built in the " carpenters'
Gothic " style common to country churches of the period. But it is remarkable
as being the first edifice erected for Christian worship in Upper Canada. It
was built by the benefaction, and in part by the manual labour of the extra-
ordinary man whose remains are interred in an oblong tomb, covered by a
single stone slab, beside the church.
Much of the prosperity of Brantford Township is derived from the railways,
which afford its farmers such convenient access to the great markets east and
west. The Harrisburg branch of the Great Western Railway passes through
the township in a north-east direction from the Town of Brantford, leaving
the township at the north-east corner. The Grand Trunk Railway runs
through the centre of Brantford Township, into which it enters on the south-
east town line, close to the Village of Caiusville, and having passed through
the Town of Brantford, takes a north-west direction, and leaves the township
on its north border, near Paria The Brantford, Norfolk and Port Burwell
Railway runs in a westerly course trom the Town of Brantford, leaving the
township between the fourth and fifth concessions on the Burford town line.
The hardships endured by the early settlers in Brantford Township, as com-
pared with the easy times and accumulated conveniences now enjoy^ by their
BRANTFORD TOWNSHIP. 367
successors and descendants, may be estimated by reading a passage from an Act
of Parliament of the year 1793 (H3 George the Third, chapter sixth, section
fourth), in which it is enacted '* that the Court of General Quarter Sessions of
the Peace for the Western District of Upper Canada shall commence and be
holden in the town of Detroit, on the second Tuesday in the months of January,
April, July and October." Detroit is situated one hundred and fifty miles
from the Town of Brantford.
Exclusive of the Town of Brantford, the population of Brantford Township
is 6,555.
Village of Cainsvillr
This is the most important business centre in the Township of Brantford. It
is named after Peter Cain, an American, one of the first settlers, and the pro-
prietor of the first hotel in the village. It is a post village on the old Hamilton
and London Boad, is three miles distant from Brantford Town, and is a flag
station on the Grand Trunk Bailway. It contains two churches, one Episcopeu
Methodist, the other Chui-ch of £n<7land. This village was laid out in 1837 by the
Grand Biver Navigation Company, an undertaking in which a large amount of
the capital was subscribed by the Indians of the Grand Biver reserve. It
contains two hotels, a very handsome white brick school house in the Italian
renaissance style, several stores, a match factory, four waggon shops, four black-
smith shops, a grocery, cheese factory, and about three hundred inhabitants.
The Churches,
As has been stated, are two in number. The Church of England edifice is
much out of repair, and owing to the accident that the leading members happen
to have lately removed from the neighbourhood of Cainsville, its services are
but insufficiently attended. The Cainsville Methodist Church is the hand-
somest and most commodious public building in the township outside the Town
of Brantford. It is built on a lot donated by the late Peter Cain, the father
and godfather of the village, in 1851. The building of the church was given
out by contract, and after some difficulties with the Building Committee, was
entrusted to Messrs. Mellish & Bussell, of Brantford Town. The first Pastor
was the Beverend Thomas Jeffers, whose zealous labours and eloquent sermons
are still remembered with gratitude by the survivors of a generation now
rapidly passing away.
In 1876 the increasing membership of the Methodist denomination in this
locality was such that the church accommodation became quite insufficient for
the worshippers. Arrangements were accordingly made to secure a lot for
building a new church in a more convenient location in the centre of Cainsville
Yillaga The site chosen was part of the old school house lot The school house
itself had in former times served as a house of prayer for both the Church of
England and the Methodist denominations, who had been accustomed to hold
service there on alternate Sundays. The Bev. Mr. Usher, of the Town of
Brantford, officiated on behalf of the Church of England congregation, the
Bev. Thomas Eawcett on behalf of the Methodists. When this the first Cains-
ville Church was built, the trustees were: Captain Joseph Brant (Thayen-
368 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
danegea), D. Lawson, Mr. Lane, C. Johnson, Abraham Hawley, George Lincoln^
E. C. Beams, and Alexander Westbrook.
The Cainsville Cheese Factory was estabHshed ten years ago by Messrs.
Hunter and Paterson ; it is now owned by Mr. R H. Wilcox. The building
and plant used in the cheese factory cost about $1,200. The building is a large
and commodious frame house ; it has changed proprietors several times, Mr.
Henry Martin having succeeded to Mr. Patersou, and in 1882 he gave place to
Mr. E. H. Wilcox, who has placed this factory on a permanent basis of saooess.
His success is the natural result of a considerable past experience in cheese-
making. The annual estimate of the business done in this cheese factory is
$6,000.
The first important building in this township was the mill erected by James
Percy, Esq., about two miles east of the Village of Mount Pleasant, which in
the primitive nomenclature of those early days was known as " Mud Holler," on
lot si:f, second concession, in the first year of the present century. This mill
was, in 1813, sold by private contract to Thomas Perrin. It was burned by
order of the American General McArthur on his march, after the repulse sus-
tained from the Canadian Militia at Brantford, to Thames Valley and the Detroit
River. Soon after this, in the year 1813, this mill was rebuilt by the same
Thomas Perrin. The total value of the exports from Cainsville in 1881 is
estimated at $60,000. The Post Office was established in 1854, David Dresser
being the first to hold the office of Postmaster. There are now six carriage
factories, and a considerable business is done in making the various agricultural
labour-saving machines now so extensively used by the farmers of Ontario.
The first general store was established in 1839 by Mr. A. Duncan, now of
Brantford Town.
There is a waggon factory which has been in operation for thirty-one years,
and which does a good business throughout the county.
The match manufactory first set on foot by Mr. Allan Blanchard has been in
operation for seventeen years. It turns out a total of twenty-eight thousand
packages of block matches per annum.
The Village of Cainsville promises every qualification of being a pleasant
summer resort, and at present is largely used by the residents of the City of
Brantford. The road, which forms its main street, is adorned on each side with
handsome villa residences and picturesque groves of trees. One of the most
noteworthy features of the Cainsville scenery is Bow Park on the opposite side
of the river, the favourite estate of the late lamented Liberal statesman, the
Honourable George Brown. In the "British Farmer's Guide to Ontario,"
published by the Ontario Government in 1880, it is on record that in this model
farm of our Province, there is maintained " perhaps the largest herd of short-
horns in the world.*' For an extensive description of this enterprise the reader
is referred to Chapter VII. of the General County History. The price of land in
this part of the Township of Brantford ranges from eighty to a hundred dollars
per acre.
As has been stated, the beautiful white brick church of the Episcopal
Methodists is, outside of the City of Brantford, one of the finest ecclesiastical
buildings in the County of Brant There is an average attendance of about a
hundred and fifty ; the pastor is the Rev. C. G. Oolmore. Cainsville has for
some years had an Orange Lodge and a Temperance Society.
brantford township. 369
Pebsoxal Histokies of Brantford Township.
Among the oldest residents in this township is Mr. James Seid, of Cainsville
Village, an eariy settler, and for many years a Magistrate in the Commission of
the Peace. Mr. Reid was born in 1818. in the Village of Doune, in Perthshire,
Scotland. He was the son of Thomas Beid and his wife, Margaret fivissel. In
this family there were six children, of whom one survives in Australia, one in
Scotland, and one in Canada. Mr. Beid received the excellent common school
education for which Scotland is famous, and emigrated to this country in 1848,
since which time he has been a resident of Cainsville. In 1845 he married his
first wife, Margaret McLennan, who died in 1855, leaving three children, of
whom two are now living. In ten years afterward he married his second wife,
Elsie Simpson Tuttle, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by whom he had two children.
Mr. Reid has been a most influential citizen of the Village of Cainsville, and in
1881 was elected Beeve. In 1882 he was presented with a handsome watch as a
testimonial of the respect and good-will of the residents of Brantford Township.
Edmund Burke Wood.
The gentleman bearing this historic name is foremost among those whose
political services have shed lustre on the Township of Brantford. He was of
Irish descent, and was bom near Chippewa, in Upper Canada, in the year 1817.
Uis father had for some years resided in the United States, whence he removed
into Canada just before the outbreak of the War of 1812. As a boy Edmund
Wood had but scanty educational advantages, but he had the benefit of three
teachers not to be outdone in these days of competitive examinations on the
brain ; these teachers were Nature, the Bible and Shakespeare. The boy spent
a healthy youth in converse with the woods and streams, with the noblest lakes
and the grandest cataract in the world. The accidental loss of an arm turned
his thoughts in an exclusively intellectual direction. Disabled from bodily
labour or farming pursuits, he chose as his vocation in life that which in Canada
to those who deserve success, leads to the highest positions — the Bar. Having
graduated at Oberlin College in Ohio as Bachelor of Arts he became a law
student in the office of Messrs. Fieemau & Jones at Hamilton, but returned to
Brantford in 1850, and was admitted to the Bar in 1854. His political career
is too well known to need more than a passing reference. The fact that he
represented in Parliament a county named after the last and most illustrious
chief of Indian warfare, induced the late Thomas D'Arcy McGee to give him
the happily-invented nickname of Big Thunder. To his wisdom and practical
common sense the Township of Brantford is indebted for much of its present
prosperity.
Hudson Cleater.
This pioneer settler was ol English descent, being the son of John Cleater and
his wife, Margaret Hunter. He was a grandson of John Cleater, Senr., and Mary
Kenwick, and was born in Brantford Township on November the 7th, 1839.
On October the 4th, 1860, he married Jane, daughter of Samuel Gordon and his
wife, Mary Ramsey, and granddaughter of James Bamsey and his wife, Mary
370 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Camagie. This lady was born on September the 24th, 1838, in Aberdeenshire,
Scotland. They have a family of five children: James, bom on the 4th of
December, 1866 ; Mary Jane, born Aagust 6th, 1862, now{enga^ed in teaching
school ; Elizabeth, born on September 24th, 1865 ; Annie, born November 21st»
1868 ; and Agnes, born August 10th, 1872.
Other Old Settlers.
Among the other pioneer settlers of this township are to be reckoned the
names of William Duncan ; of William Simpson ; of William Sears ; of Joseph
Thomas, Peter Cain and David Lawson. The venerable John Oles, still resident
on his farm at the pleasant Village of Lan^ord, can remember the earliest
events of this township. Mr& Darling, of the same village, has survived a
husband who was one of the old landmarks. East of Mr. John Oles' farm is
the homestead of the Vanderlip family.
Village of Buktch.
This little hamlet is situated four miles «south of the Town of Brantford. It
contains one church of the Canada Baptist denomination ; one general store, a
waggon factory, a blacksmith shop, and a population of fifty. The Baptist
Church was built in 1869 in the usual country church modification of Gothic,
and cost S2,500. It has a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty. There is
service every Sunday at 1.30 p.m., and Sunday school at 3 p.m. Besides these
services there is a prayer meeting on Thursday. The average attendance at the
Sunday services is one hundred and fifty.
Falkland Village.
This post village, which was formerly named Beams ville, is situated four miles
west of JParis on the township line between Burford and Brantford. It contains
a neat frame church, erected twenty years ago by the Primitive Methodist
community, two blacksmith shops, two general stores, a tailor's shop, and some
hundred inhabitants.
Mount Vernon Village.
This picturesque village is situated seven miles from Brantford Town, and
one mile from the township line of Burford, and seven miles from Paris. It was
laid out in 1830 bv Mr. Thomas Perrin, and for some time bore the appellation
of the " Chequered Sheds." The first of the ten taverns at present carried on
was opened in 1830 by John VanNorman. The pioneer settler of this now
thriving village was Mr. Thomas Perrin, who established the first general
store as early as 1835, who built a saw-mill in 1840, and a grist mill in 1845.
In 1848, Mount Vernon was raised to the dignity of a post village, Mr. Thos.
Perrin, to whom the village owes most of its present prosperity, being selected
to fill the office of Postmaster.
Mount Vernon contains a Methodist church, erected thirty-three years ago
at a cost of $2,000, and having a seating capacity of three hundred. There is
BRANTFORD TOWNSHIP. 371
service every Sunday at 2-30 p.m., also prayer-meeting on Thursday, and
Sabbath School at 10 a^m. The village contains two hotels, a doctor, a cabinet
and a waggon shop, a general store, a tailor shop, a blacksmith shop, a barrel
and stave factory, a carSing mill, a grist mill and two hundred and fifty inhabit-
ants.
The Mount Vernon Woollen Mills have been carried on with success for
forty-three years ; the Stave and Barrel Factory for twenty-seven years.
Village of Langforo.
This attractive village is situated on the old London and Hamilton Road. It
contains a long and straggling row of houses fronting the London Road, a brick
built Methodist church, a general store, a post office, of which Mrs. Dowling,
a widow, is the Postmistress. The population is estimated at two hundred. It
is about two miles east of Cainsville.
Village of Mount Pleasant.
This delightfully situated village is five miles to the south-west of Brantford
Town, close to the township line between Brantford and Oakland Townships.
The name is a misnomer, the " Mount," pleasant as its appearance undoubtedly
is, being an unbroken plain. There are three churches, all of some architectural
merit, those of the Methodist, the Presbyterian Tuid the Anglican denomina-
tions. There are also three general stores, as tnany blacksmith shops, a cabinet
shop, two shoemakers, a doctor, a grist mill and over two hundred inhabitants.
The English Church is a subtantial frame building which was put up in 1844 ;
the congregation has diminished since that time. The Methodist Church, a
handsome building of brick, was erected in 1861, and cost $6,000 ; it will seat
four hundred. The Presbyterian Church, a small frame building dating from
1841, will seat one hundred and fifty, and cost $700.
Village of Newport.
This post village, situated on the Grand River, is three miles south of the
Town of Brantford ; it contains two brick-yards, a hotel, three stores, and one
hundred and fifty inhabitants. It was surveyed by Mr. Burwell, and laid out for
settlement by Mr. T. Smith, in 1857. In 1822, a tavern was opened by Mr. A.
Brown ; in 1845 a general store was established by John Bell. The first school,
a log building, was built in 1847. In 1855 the village was furnished with a
post office, the first Postmaster being Mr. Thaddeus Smith.
872 HISTORY OF BRANT COUHTY.
BURFORD TOWNSHIP.
In the Village of Burford there still lives, in the full enjoyment of all his
faculties, an old man of ninety-eight He can remember the time when all the
region now covered with villages and farms was an unbroken wilderness. The
Township of Burford, now one of the finest a^rricultural districts in Canada,
was then tenanted only by wild beasts, or by wandering savages of some of the
least civilized Indian tribes. Where now wheat fields, reaped, with little human
labour, by elaborate machinery, send their harvest gold into the farmer's
treasury, one unvaried forest growth, fed by the creeks and rivers that were
its veins and arteries, surged over hill and valley, an immeasurable sea of
verdure. The Township of Burford is at the western side of the County of
Brant ; it has on the east side the Township of Brantford and Oakland ; on
the west the Townships of East Oxford and Norwich: on the north the Town-
ship of Blenheim in Oxford County ; on the south the Township of Wyndham
in Norfolk County. It extends nine miles east and west, by twelve miles
north and south, and contains sixty-seven thousand two hundred acres. The
concessions are counted from the north, the lots from the east. Its settlement
began in 1793, and was fully accomplished thirty-four years later. Every part
of it id now thoroughly cleared. JBurford is a purely agricultural district;
there are no manufactures to speak of ; which perhaps partly results from the
absence of such water privileges as are possessed by other townships of the
County of Brant to such a remarkable degree. The country is tor the most .
part level, and this is especially the case in the eastern portion ; in the centre it
is low and swampy ; to the west and south there are slight undulations, the
effect of some prehistoric water-courses.
The quality of the soil is some of the best in Canada ; a rich sand loam,
with clay and gravel sub-soil. The geological formation is limestone of the
fossiliferous stratum, which extends all through Ontario. The abundant
deposits of gravel are of much use as forming a natural system of drains.
The Gk>vernmeut estimate of the value of the land in this township was that it
consisted of one-third land of the first quality, mostly in the eastern section
called the Plains ; this was valued at eighty dollars an acre ; one- third of the
land was second class quality, valued at forty dollars an acre ; the rest was
inferior, and valued at twenty dollars an acre. This estimate was made in 1881.
Now the best quality land is valued at a hundred dollars an acre. The most
fertile part of this township extends from the eastern town line for three miles
westward. It is perfectly level land, and the soil is specially adapted for
bearing wheat. It was originally covered with dense woods of oak. In the
centre of the township is a strip of low swampy ground, with woods of black
ash, elm, and a little pine and cedar ; but though the timber is poor, this sec-
BURFORD TOWNSHIP. 373
tion makes good pasture land. To the west of the township, and in the soath
from the Village of Scotland westwards, the land is excellent Barford con-
tains no lai^e towns or business centre, but the Dominion can boast no finer
farming country. The homesteads and villa residences which dot its expanse
are of no little taste and elegance. Every two or three miles we come to a
little village with its neat church and cluster of stores. Two of these, Burford
and Scotland, are of larger size and no inconsiderable attraction as summer
resorts. Although there is no large river in Burford Township, it is irrigated
by a number of small streams or creeks, .which flow in an easterly direction
towards the Grand River and its tributaries. The chief of these is " Homer's "
or " Whiteman's " Creek, so named from Thomas Homer, the first white man
who settled in the township; it enters Burford on the first concession, lot fifteen,
to the north-west of the township, and then flows to the south-east from the first
to the sixth concession, where it enters Brantford. It affords valuable water
privileges, and gives motive power to a number of grist and lumber mills.
"^ Big Creek," rising in Oxford, flows into Burford at the southern part of the
west boundary, and flows with an exceedingly tortuous and sluggish course
east into Wyndham. " King's " and ** Landon's " Creeks, with several minor
tributaries, intersect the township, adding beauty and verdure to the land
through which they flow. But every year since the destruction of the forests
which fed and secured them, the streams grow less ; the brook trout and other
fish, thirty years ago so abundant in these creeks, have disappeared, poisoned, it
is thought, by the sawdust from the mills.
The Roads
In this township are excellent, aflfording easy communication with the many
market centres on all sides of its boundaries. The principal one is the old
London Road, leading from Hamilton through Brantfoi-d, Burford and Oxford
to London ; one branch of it runs from the centre of the township, south-west
to Norwich; the other leads in a northerly direction to Woodstock. The
Brantford, Norfolk and Port Burwell Railway enters the Township of Burford
at the seventh concession from Brantford, and pursues a south-westerly course
to Norwich, having stations at the Villages of Burford and Harley. Consider-
able attention is being paid to the planting of shade trees along the principal
thoroughfares, and in general to the replanting of the forests.
The settlement of Burford Township dates from 1793, under the regime
of one of the most eminent of the founders of English-speaking Canada,
Governor Simcoe. He had been captured by the Americans in the War of
Independence ; and at a time when party feeling ran high, and the Americans
were much embittered against their British opponents, Colonel Simcoe, as he
then was, received much kindness from an American named Thomas Watson.
When, the war being over. General Simcoe was appointed to be Governor of
Canada in 1792, he invited his American benefactor to settle with his family
in Canada, promising a grant of land. Watson accepted the invitation and
came, bringing his nephew, Thomas Homer, to whom a grant was made of the
Township of Blenheim, on condition that he should erect a saw-mill at his own
expense, and take other steps to encourage settlement This he undertook, and
374 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
had journeyed to New York to procure the necessary equipment, when on hi^
return he found to his astonishment that '' another king had arisen who knew
not Joseph/' in the shape of Qovernor Simcoe s successor, who refused to con-
firm the grant of Blenheim Township — a strange thing, if we remember that a
infant of a township was not thought such a great matter in those days.
Undeterred by this rebuff, Mr. Homer built bis mill, and entered into possession
of land which was obtained by purchase and surveyed by Mr. Augustus Jones,
father of the late celebrated teacher and missionary, the Rev. Petei Jones.
Ml*. Horner was in 1798 appointed Captain in the Militia, and in 1806 Deputy-
Lieutenant of Oxford, an appointment most unjustly withdmwn from him on
the outbreak of the War of 1812. This, however, did not prevent him from
rendering most valuable assistance to the British cause by securing to General
Brock the support of the Iroquois of the Six Nations. Seventy-five of their
warriors were led by Mr. Horner to aid Brock's advance on Detroit Mr.
Horner as magistrate ruled over a district as large as an English county,
including what is now Burford, and all through the deeds and documents
relating to its early history his signaiure is attached.
In the early part of the present century other settlers came into the eastern
part of Burford, it being soon discovered that the " oak openings " of the plains
in that district had a soil of exceptional fertility. In 1797 the
Fjrst White Child was Bobk in Bukfobd,
The recently-deceased Stephen Landon. In 1808 the late Henry Lester, a
native of New York, settled in Burford, where a few pioneer families had
already established themselves ; those of Wheeler Dougias, Dr. Allen, John
Yeigh, James Bounds, John Fowler, Justus Stephens, Nathaniel Landon, Abra-
ham Daton, Captain White, Michael Showers, the Fosters, Lym burners, and
Woodens. Several of the descendants of those '' first families " of Burford
have kindly furnished us with their recollections of those early days. The
Burford settlers by no means endured the same hardships and privations that
earlier settlers endured in less easily reclaimed districta The period of forest
clearing lasted but a short time, and the period of agricultural prosperity soon
set in. Still much had to be endured. Around them was the desolate forest
whence the ox-team, then the only conveyance by which it was possible to
travel, could with difficulty thread the dark and tortuous passages cleared
among the dense undergrowth by the woodman's axa Bears and wolves
abounded. By the testimony of Mr. Thomas Lloyd-Jones, of Burtbrd, and of
Mr. Muir, a magistrate of long standing and high character in the Village of
Burford, it is an undoubted fact that the packs of wolves were at one time
so numerous and so daring, that it was impossible for children to attend
school without an armed escort. Mr. Muir, when a young boy, has lain awake
in his father's log-house while three separate packs of wolves, wild with hunger,
were howling round the farm-yard, sniffing at the crevices for the smell of
human flesh, or striving to penetrate with tooth and claw the outbuilding where
the cattle were secured. Unce a settler was attacked, unarmed, by a wolf ;
powerless to beat it off, he bethought himself of flapping his coat in its face.
Fortunatel}% this scared it away. A still * stranger wolF story rests on the
BUKFORD TOWNSHIP. 373
autbority of the late Mr. Wooden, of Burford. He with his brother were
attacked at night by a pack of wolves. They were unarmed, and saved
themselves by climbing a sapling jnst lai^e enough to support their weight,
and more easily climbed than trees of greater size. All night the wolves
gnawed and tore at the tree-trunk. It was only the daybreak that saved the
hunters ; the tree-trunk had been nearly gnawed through. The bears were not
at all so dangerous to human life, but were still worse neighbours to the farmer
than the wolvea The latter did no damage to the crops, but to Bruin nothing
came amiss ; a stray pig, a cow, a hive of bees, a field of grain, a patch of corn.
Mr. Thomas Lloyd-Jones well remembers the scene in the village when the
advent of a bear was announced. All was hurry and excitement ; everyone
turned out to join in the hunt, and with all sorts of weapons.
The fauna of Barford at the time did not difiTei from that of other parts of
Brant County. Beavers abounded, and their strange hydraulic and architectural
cabins were seen on the creeks, and amid the swamps of the central portion of
the township. Besides the more common snakes, the deadly rattlesnake wns
found among the gravelly hills, but this terrible reptile has now disappeared
altogether, extirpated, it is thought, by the introduction of the farmers' hogs,
who are said to devour all manner of serpents with impunity. The well-
known Canadian writer, Mr. R W. Phipps, informs the author that several
members of his family were for a considerable time residents of Burford Town-
ship, and that he knows from personal experience that rattlesnakes were then
common. At a camp meeting, when the visitors had retired to rest, they were
startled by the sinister sound of a large snake's rattle. But an Indian convert,
who happened to be present, soon found and killed the reptile, whose bodv, five
feet long, he skinned and fried for next day's breakfast ! A cousin of Mr. Phipps,
while ploughing in company with that gentleman, was stung by a rattlesnake
whose fangs pierced through his leather top-boots. His life was saved by the
copious use of whiskey, which, especially with those not addicted to drinking, is
a certain cure for snake bites. As rattlesnakes have now disappeared from
Burford, it were devoutly to be wished that whiskey too should cease to exist !
Most of the early settlers of Burford took part in the War of 1812, when, the
English troops heir g engaged in European warfare, the brunt of the contest had
to be sustained by the brave farmers of Canada, and well did the men of Burford
respond to the call of patriotic duty ! One of the oldest settlers, Henry Lester,
fought as Quartermaster Sergeant all through the war, and distinguished him-
self at the battle of Lundy's Lane. Jacob Yeigh served as lieutenant^ and both
he and his brother acted with much gallantry ; a silver medal of great beauty
was to have rewarded his services, which, however, he forfeited by the promi-
nent part he took in the rising of the Patriots of 1837. His countrymen's
r^^ard for his memory as a true Canadian does him more honour than any court
decorations. The mUitary history of Burford has a comic aspect owing to the
stampede of the Burford Militia, known as " the Baces of Malcolm's Mills."
Then, as now, Burford was zealous in the volunteer movement. In October,
1814, a company of Burford Militia, consisting of about fiftv men, under the
command of Captain White, was stationed in the neighbourhood of Mr. John
Fowler^s farm, at Burford. News arrived of the approach of the American
General, McArthur, with seven hundred cavalry. lieutenant Jacob Teigh was
376 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
absent procuring supplies for the commissariat, but Captain White led his men
to the rendezvous at Malcolm's Mills in Oakland Township. There Colonel
Eyerson,a relative of the late Superintendent of Education, with Captains Salmon
and Bostwick, at first determined on resistance, and threw up a breastwork on
the bank of the creek ; but cool reflection taught them tbat discretion was the
better part of valour, and that there was truth in the poet's words —
" He who fif(ht8 and rans away
May live to fight another day."
The entire force made for home with such speed that Captain Bostwick's
troop took the shortest way of escape so conscientiously that they rode straight
through the mill pond. When General McArthur and his seven hundred came
up an hour afterwards^ they found the barrack empty. The immense superiority
of the invading American force is after all some excuse for this hasty retreat
of a militia force which on other occasions, when more fairly matched, showed
that it could fi^ht well Other skirmishes took place during the many irregular
operations which characterized this war, and on a farm a couple of miles west
of Burford Village, bullets and soldier's buttons are still occasionally dug up.
The war over, the Bui ford farmers for a time shared in the depression whidi
prevaUed in Upper Canada, on account of the neglect of farming work by men
employed in the militia service, and the scarcity of money. This soon passed
under the judicious measures then adopted by the Government, and a fresh
influx of settlers poured in, consisting mainly of those who had been engaged
in military service during the war. Mr. Charles Perley settled at what was
afterwards Bishopsgate Village, Burford. Capt. Michael Showers, who had
been a distingushed officer during the war, and had performed special services
at the battle of Stony Creek, settled at Burford in 1816. About the same
time Mr. Wooden settled at Cathcart Village, and a number of other veterans
of the war at Scotland, a village on the south-east township line near the scene
of operations, in 1814. About this time too Mr. lioyd -Jones, father of the
present Eeeve of the township, arrived from Denbigh in North Wales. The
township was now pretty well settled ; the nuclei of the Villages of Cathcart.
Victoria, Harley and Kelvin, began to form in the western part of Burford
from north to south, useful centres of exchange to the neighbouring farmers,
although never destined to equal in importance the older Villages of Burford
and Scotland.
Education and Public Schools
Began to be attended to. As early as 1808 a rude log school house had been built
in Burford Village, where a rough and ready but sufficient primary education
was administered by Captain White, a fair mathematical scholar, and a rigid
disciplinarian of the old school. He taught there from 1808 to 1811, when be
left to take part in the war. Others succeeded, and the log school house being
burned down, a neat frame building took its place. About the same time a
school house was built at Cathcart, and several sprang up in the other centres
west and south. But that at Burford, then as now, was considered the most
efficient and best equipped. After the organization by Chief Superintendent
Eyerson of our present school system, Burford Township was divided into its
BURFORD TOWNSHIP. 377
present twenty-eight school districts. The school kt Burford Village, School
Section No. 8, presents a pleasing appearance of neatness and order. The
teachers are Mr. A. R Kennedy and Miss Galbraith. The development of this
settlement was now, and for some years afterwards, materially aided by the
construction of Oovernment roads. In earlier times the only mail was carried
once a month from Niagara, by Indians who traversed the trails in the forest
With education and the establishment of easy means of communication with
Woodstock, Hamilton, Brantford and Toronto, came an interest in politics. The
Township of Burford has never boasted a local journal, but from the earliest
period those of Toronto and Niagara circulated there, and twenty years later
«uch newspapers as the Uxaminer, of Mr. Francis Hincks, and the Colonial
Advocate, of William Lyon Mackenzie, were eagerly sought after.
Legal and Municipal Organization.
For the first twenty years of the settlement there eiiisted no means of en-
forcing contracts, or enforcing the payment of debts. Mr; W. C. Trimble, of
Brantford, relates an anecdote hic^hly characteristic of the legal proceedings of
those early days, how a creditor met a recalcitrant debtor at a logging bee, and
having in vain exhausted all his powers of persuasion in appeals to the debtor's
moral sense, constituted himself judge, jury and policeman by bumping the
defendant s head against a log untU he consented to an immediate settlement
of the debt After 1812 courts for the transaction of civil business were held
at Long Point Bay on Lake Erie. Then London became the capital, at a dis-
tance of sixty miles, and instances are known of men consenting to pay an
unjust debt rather than incur the expense of a long journey and many days*
delay. Afterwards Woodstock, a much more convenient distance, became the
County Capital of Oxford, of which Burford formed a part until 1852.
The first Township Council of Burford met on January 1, 1850. It was held
at the tavern kept by Mr. Henry Dorman at the Village of Cathcart Bams-
ford Bounds was elected the first Eeeve, and Colonel C. Perley the Deputy
Beeve, and George 6. Ward was appointed Clerk. The other members of this
first Council were : I. B. Henry, Bobert Muir and Charles Hedgers. It is
remarkable that Messrs. C. Hedgers and Henry continued members of Burford
Council for twenty-one successive years. Mr. Muir also had a long tenure of
office. In the following year Douglas Stevenson was appointed Clerk, as suc-
cessor to Mr. Ward, and in 1854 Bobert Hunter took the office. In 1855 Mr.
Alonzo Foster succeeded, being also Township Treasurer. The present muni-
cipal officers are : Beeve, Mr. Thomas Lloyd-Jones ; First Deputy Beeve, Mr.
Alexander Maclrvine ; Second Deputy Keeve, Mr. James Harley. This gen-
tleman is a brother of the member of Parliament for Oxford. Councillors :
Mr. Thomas ButLerford, Mr. John Bathbum ; Clerk, Mr. Albert Foster ; Treas-
urer, Mr. Archibald Harley, M.P.P. Mr. Bobert Muir, above mentioned, has
been on the Commission of the Peace since 1852.
The Burford Bevolt in 1837.
The insurrectionary movement of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie and his supporters
in 1837, may well be considered the central point in the history of English-
378 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
speakinc^ Canada, the crisis between a tyrannical local oligarchy and the reforms
which led to Responsible Government and nationality. Its importance has
been little appreciated by the so-called historians of Canada One alone — ^the
only historian of our national history whose work aims at being something
higher than a mere slipshod compilation — Mr. Charles Dent, in his most ori-
ginal and eloquently written " Last Forty Years of Canada/' has had the
insight to perceive and the courage to eulogize the services rendered to Canada
by " the grand old rebel," Next in importance to the movement on Toronto,
headed by Mackenzie himself, was that of his friend and colleague, Dr. Dnn-
combe, in the Township of Burford. Burford was the scene ot a rising the
events connected with which have been left unnoticed by t^iose who have
written on the events of 1837. The facts are here put down — it is hoped in a
spirit remote from partisanship, "nothing extenuated and naught set down
in malice " — as gathered partly from the family and friends of Duncombe, and
partly from the men or the sons of the men who took part on either side in the
various sections of Burford.
For the facts in the following account of the part taken by the Burford
people in the movement of 1837, we are indebted among others to Mr. Tuf-
ford, formerly of Bishopsgate Village, Burford ; to his wife, daughter of Dr.
Duncombe ; to Mr. Gibson, of Bishopsgate, and Mr. Muir, of Burford ; the last
mentioned, although a Reformer, havitig opposed the insurrection.
As has been shown in the General Hist.ory of Canada, for years before 1837
every effort was made by that large majority in Upper Canada who desired
reform to secure Responsible Government. In no part of the Province was
tliis more earnestly supported than in Burford, where many of those who had
been foremost in fighting on the British, or rather on the Canadian side against
America in 18^2, were deeply implicated in this premature effort to secure
Canadian independence. A chief grievance against the Family Compact Grov-
ernment was the attempt made, under Bishop Strachan's inspiration, to set up a
State Established Church. This touched the farming community especially,
who felt the injustice and the injury to agriculture of setting apart the large
tracts known as the '' Clergy Reserves," exempt from taxation, and, by their
unimproved state, injurious to neighbouring settlementa
At this time the whole of the east centre of Burford Township, from the
town line westward to Boston Village, was owned by Dr. Duncombe. This
gentleman, an American by birth, had settled in Burford some years after the
end of the War of 1812, and purchased the land on which the present Village
of Bishopsgate is built, with about two hundred acres besides. Dr. Duncombe
was one of the first to practise the medical profession in Burford and the adja-
cent townships. Being a man of as much energy as professional skill, he was
sought after through a wide radius of territory, and acquired both fortune and
reputation. In personal appearance he was somewhat below the average height,
but with an active muscular figure, pleasing feature and lips and brow expres-
sive of a resolute, determined nature. His manner in public or private speech
is described as singularly winning; he had the true orator's gift of apt
illustration and eloquent language ; quite untrained in military tactics, he had,
like Mackenzie, of whom the same may be said, determined courage and the
faculty for leading others. Such was the celebrated Dr. Duncombe, as we pic-
BURFOBD TOWNSHIP. 379
ture him from the accounts given by those in Burford who knew him, and by
those who remember him as a speaker in Parliament at Toronto, and from the
portrait now in possession of his daughter.
All through the north-western and southern part of Brant County, and
above all in his own Township of Burford, Dr. Duncombe acquired great
influence. His frank amiability, his readiness to take any trouble in order to
extend the benefit of his professional skill to his poorest neighbours, endeared
him to all in Burford. He was also a good practical farmer, and on all agri-
cultural matters in thorough sympathy with his rural friends, who also had
the good sense to appreciate the culture and oratorical powers which they them-
selves did not possess. Soon he was elected member of Parliament, and there
justified the choice of his constituents by his oratorical powers no less than
by the determined resistance with which he met the attempts of the Family
Compact oligarchy to curb the rising spirit of the Beform movement. The
Reformers of Burford had reason to be proud of their representative, who soon
became one of the recognized leaders of the Reform movement. Together with
William Lyon Mackenzie, Dr. Duncombe was sent as a representative of the
demands and grievances of Upper Canada. Through years, and amid the
bitterness of patient effort, the Reformers struggled to obtain what are now
regarded as people's rights by constitutional means. At length the limit of
patience seemed to be reached, and William Lvon Mackenzie resolved to appeal
to arms. We have elsewhere recorded in detail the events of Mackenzie's
rising in Toronto. Neither he nor Duncombe had any of the qualifications of
military leaders except personal courage. Nor, among Dr. Duncombe's friends
in Burford, was the movement organized with any definite shape. It was
generally understood among those of the Reformers who favoured Mackenzie's
bolder policy, that there would be a rising in Burford and the adjacent town-
ships to support, if successful, Mackenzie's movement on Toronto. The more
moderate Reformers held aloof ; Mr. Muir, for instance, then as now a staunch
adherent of the Reform cause, exerted all his influence to prevent his neigh-
bours from taking part in the insurrection. But though there was no con-
spiracy, and scarcely any settled plan, there was much furbishing up of old
rifles and muskets, much melting of bullets; and a movement was contemplated
by all the township led by men who had seen service in 1812, and with a force
composed of no ordinary plebeian insurgents, with everything to gain and
nothing to lose, but by many of the most substantial of the Burford farmers,
men wno risked in the cause for which they were prepared to die not only their
lives, but in each case a considerable landed property, reclaimed from the
wilderness by the labour of years, and the sole hope of support for wife and
children. Such men were Stephen Landon, a veteran of 1812 ; such were
Jacob and Adam Yeigh, who were distinguished oflicers in the same war, and
whose well-merited military decoration was only cancelled by their patriotism
in 1837. These and many others, though armed only with rifles with which
they were accustomed to bring down the wild bird on the wing, would have
formed the materials of no contemptible insurrectionary force.
But as a matter of fact, no insurrection took place. Among other military'
measures which had been neglected was the necessity for constant communi-
cation between the force under Mackenzie and Lount, and that which was
380 fflSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY
ready to rise under Duncombe. As a oonseqnence, when Mackenzie's ill-fated
raid was repulsed in the skirmish at Montgomery's farm, no one knew the
result in Burford for two weeks after all had been decided ! Rumours came,
conveyed principally by a man who had taken part in the fight but who after-
wards deserted his cause, one Lount, no relative or connection of the noble
bearer of the same name, who died at ToronCo ; it was said that Mackenzie
had risen, that Toronto was taken. The greatest excitement prevailed ; the
*' Patriots" gathered round Dunoombe, and besought him to aid a movement
which might support their Toronto friends who had risen for Canadian inde-
pendence. Duncombe does not seem to have approved of Mackenzie's hasty
action ; at first he did not wish to head a rising ;' but willing to show that he
had the courage of his opinions in a cause which he believed to be* just, he
consented to become their leader, appointing a rendezvous at the Village of
Scotland, with the purpose of marching by Oakland Plains and Hamilton.
Meetings of his followers were held at a house on the township line between
Blenheim and South Dumfries, as also at McBain's Mills, a mile beyond the
Village of Ayr, and through Burford at several points ; it was resolved to
collect arms, and this duty was assii^ned among others to Mr. Tufford, of
Bishopsgate, Burford, husband of Dr. Duncombe's daughter. He did not, as
alleged by a witness at his trial, make any forcible seizure, but got together
what firearms could be obtained from sympathizers.
A gathering of about three hundred men actually took place under Dr. Dun-
combe at Oakland Plains. They were well armed, resolute men, and would no
doubt have been largely reinforced for the attempt on Hamilton had not
Duncombe resolved to abandon that attempt and disperse the insurgent force
on learning not only of Mackenzie's failure at Toronto, but the approach of Sir
Allan McNab with an overwhelming force to attack his lines at Scotland.
The insurgents scattered in every direction. Jacob Yeigh escaped to the United
States ; Duncombe was enabled, after many adventures, to reach the same
asylum by the fidelity and courage of Charles Tilden ; Stephen Landon and
otheis returned home, keeping more or less in concealment.
Meanwhile Colonel MacNab and his militia regiments arrived at the Village
of Bishopsgate in Burford, where they were billeted on the reluctant farmers
and storekeepers of that " Rebel Hold," as the village was stvled in the " loyal"
parlance of the day, A warmer welcome was extended to the Royalist ofiicers
and men at the mansion, always a hospitable one, of the late Colonel Charles
Perley, a vehement partisan of the Family Compact Government, one who
carried his loyalty so far as to consent to sit as a juror on a case where a cousin
of his own was being tried for his life. Great were the preparations for baking
bread and slaughtering sheep and oxen ; fervent and deep the toasts quaffed to
the confusion of the rebels who had not rebelled. In unopposed triumph
Colonel MacNab and his warriors marched south through Burford to Scotland^
which village they occupied.
The history of the reign of terror that followed, until it was promptly checked
by the English Liberal Government, and the beneficent measures of reform
which followed on England's attention being called to the grievances which had
caused the insurrection, are detailed in our chapter on Canadian History. Dr.
Duncombe recovered his property, which had been confi<«cated, except a farm of
/^/V / ^i-
T4» \'P
t' r-
\ST''^h { «>^
"•X
BURPOKD TOWNSHIP. 383
two hundred acres which, with characteristic generosity, he had deeded in the
name of the infant child of the friend who had secured his escape, on which
farm that child, now grown to manhood, resides. Duncombe lived through an
honourable and successful career of some years in the States.
The Burford Villages. — Bishopsqate.
Bishopsgate is the first village entered by the traveller as he comes into
Burford by the road leading from Brantford to London, and known as the uld
London Road. It is situat^ a mile from the Village of Mount Vernon, and
the same distance from the larger and more important Village of Burford Street.
With the latter it is almost continuous, there being a line of handsome villa
residences and farm-hou»es all along the road that connects them. This hamlet
dates from the beginning of the settlement, and at one time promised to become
more thriving than any other in the Township. A foundry was started and
seemed to be doing a good business, but the chief partner in the manage-
ment got into difficulties, and left for parts unknown in the States some years
ago. Others would gladly have utilized the plant and carried on the business,
but unfortunately everything had been mortgaged, and the mortgage was so
arranged that no foreclosure could be effected unless a summons could be served
on the fugitive partner.. This being impossible, nothing remained but to let
the property go to ruin. Part of the old machinery has been very lately removed.
With the foundry went a grist-mill owned by one of the firm.
This village was surveyed in 1846 by Lewis Burwell, Provincial Land Sur-
veyor ; it was laid out by Colonel Whitehead and Mr. Russel Smith It has
neither post office nor school, those of the neighbouring Village ot Burford being
used by the inhabitants. The village itself has by no means progressed of late
years ; it is picturesquely situat^, and has several unusually handsome
gentlemen's residences, surrounded by parks and groves of beautiful maple,
walnut and oak trees, tastefully disposed. The village contains two small
stores and a blacksmith's shop, that of Mr. Oibsou, a most respectable and
well-informed resident, who has officiated as blacksmith at Bishopsgate for the
last thirty years. There is an excellent hotel kept by Mr. Smith. The only
church is that built in 1874 by the Presbyterians ; there is a congregation of
eighty, to a seating capacity of two hundred. The clergyman, the Rev. Thomas
Alexander, has served this church for the last ten years, residing at Mount
Pleasant Village, in Brantford Township, where also he holds services. He
had previously been stationed at Cobourg. Service is held every Sunday,
followed by Sunday school
The chief ornament of this village is the mansion erected here four years ago
by Mr. Thomas Lloyd-Jones. This is a tastefully designed building of white
brick, surrounded by handsome and well kept ornamental grounda On the
north-west side of these grounds a grove of oak trees represents the original
" oak openings " of this part of Burford. A large water-wheel has been put up
close to the house. Mr. Lloyd-Jones built this residence on the site of Colonel
Perley's old house, destroyed by fire a year before he purchased the Colonel's
property of two hundred acres. Mr. Lloyd-Jones has a field of twelve acres,
which for seventeen years he has planted with one crop of neaa, all the others
23
384 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
with wheat or barley, the average yield for the whole aeries of years being
thirty-five bushels an acre. Mr. Lloyd-Jones is a son of one of the early settlers
who came to this country from Denbigh, in North Wales. In a neat house in
this village also resides Mrs. Perley, widow of the late excellent and kind-
hearted Colonel Perley ; Mr. Coker, an American of Dutch descent, from Penn-
sylvania ; and Mr. Marsh Philips, a young English gentleman who purchased
pitoperty several years ago, which he takes enthusiastic pleasure in farming. He
has induced quite a colony of young Englishmen of his own class to come over
to Burford in order to learn farming.
Northward along the township Une, about a mile from Bishopsgate, is the
farm and homestead of the Landon family, of whose founder, Stephen liindon,
mention has already been made. The estate, which is a valuable one, is now
held by his son, Mr. Stacey Landon. Here too the land is of the best wheat-
growing quality.
A new agricultural product has been introduced of late years into this part
of Burford — the culture of the Canadian or soft-stemmed sugar-cane. This
differs from the sugar-cane of the tropics only in not being perennial, but being
raised from seed grown afresh each spring. A good crop of this is produced in
the eastern part of Burford for the purpose of boiling it into syrup. In the
spring and summer the peculiarly fresh green of its long leaf blades has a
pleasing effect ; in autumn its stallc is overtopped by a rich spike of purple
blossom.
Village of Burford.
This village, which has been called Burford, Burford Street, of Claremontp
is by far the largest, most picturesque, and most thriving business centre in
the township. It is situated on the main road from Brantford to London,
about a mile from the eastern township line, nine miles from Brantford, nine
from Paris, the same distance from Princeton, and seventeen miles from Wood-
stock. It has derived great advantages from being a station on the Brantford,
Norfolk and Port Burwell Sailway. llie present prosperity of the town is
mainly due to the railway, which gives it easy access to Brantford and other
business centres. There is no water privilege, and no manufacturing industries
have as yet appeared except a small carriage factory. There are four grocery
and dry goods stores, all apparently doing good business ; in the largest is the
post omce, in charge of Mr. Cox ; two ckkers ; one carriage factory giving
employment to fifteen men, and well patronized in the neighbourhood ; its pro-
prietor, Mr. James lioyd, turns out from six to eight thousand dollars worth
of work per annum. It has been in operation for thirty -one yeara There
are also two blacksmith shops ; two tailors ; two undertakers ; two tinsmiths ;
a harness-maker; a cooper; two butchers' stores; two shoemakers; and a
dentist There is a grain store ; two grist-mills on the creek, within a mile of
the village, three saw-mills and two shingle factories. There are two main
streets which intersect each other at right angles ; King Street runs east and
west of the other street, which extends south towards the mlway station. There
is one hotel, situated in a handsome white brick block of buildings at the
centre of the village, where the two streets cross each other. The stores are
well supplied with wares of aU kinds. Shade trees ornament the streets, gay
BURFORD TOWNSHIP. 385
with vehicles and well-dressed pedestriana Around the village there are many
prosperous farms, among the best of them that of Robert Muir, Esq., for many
years in the Commission of the Peace for the township. This land has a fine
aandy soil, mixed with day loam, and yields wheat crops of from thirty-five
to forty bushels an acre. In the centre of the farm is a pond with outlet by a
small creek, which keeps the water fresh. There are many other handsome
residences ; in fact, the village has been built up to a great degree by farmers
who have realized enough to retire from business and take up their abode
theia In summer time Burford Village is as pleasant a holiday resort as can
be found in the Province, and the hotel provides most comfortable accommo-
dation. There are no saloons or liquor stores ; the village enjoys an Arcadian
freedom trom drunkenness and other offences against law and order. There
are three medical men, all in good practice ; they state that the village is
healthy, but that there is a considerable amount of malarial fever, especially
among the occupants of farms towards the central part of the township, west
of Burford Village. The more malignant blood-poison fevers, such as typhoid
and diphtheria, have been hitherto unknown.
Some American army buttons and several bullets have been found on a farm
alx>ut a mile west of this village, the relics of some skirmish of General Mc-
Ai-thur's force with the Burford Militia, when, after the fi^ht at Brantford and
Malcolm a Mill, he resolved to abandon his march on Fort Erie and return home.
The Burford Churchesl
There are four places of worship in Burford Village, those of the Church of
England, the Canada Methodist, the Congregational, and the Baptist.
The Church of England people num^r twenty-five familiea The church
dedicated to the Trinity is a plain, red brick building with lancet windows ; it
was erected in 1850, mainly by the aid of the late Colonel Perley, at a cost of
SI ,800. It has seating capacity for 300. The burial place for English Churdi
people is kept in good order, and contains several handsome monuments.
Services are held in Trinity Church each Sunday. The clergyman. Rev. Mr.
Hind, also holds services every Sunday at the Villages of Catbcart and Mount
Pleasant.
The Baptists have a handsome frame church, built in 1866, with a seating
capacity of two hundred. Services are held every Sunday, and a prayer
meeting on Wednesday. The cost of the church was $800. The pastor is the
Rev. 'i£r. Hyde. There are about a hundred members.
The Canada Methodist denomination has a neat frame church in the usual
modification of Gothic common to our country churches. It cost about $1,200,
and is the largest church in Burford, having a seating capacity of 400. Service
is held every Simday evening in winter and summer. There is a prayer
meeting and Bible class on Thursday. The average atteiklance is 300. The
pastor is the Ptev. Mr. Hayhurst. The church was built in 1858.
A society of the Congregational Church was organized in 1835 by the Rev.
James Hall, who was sent out to Canada as a missionary by the Congregational
Missionary Society in England. The church, a handsome Gothic building of
frame with a tin-covered spire, was built in 1839 at a &ostof three thousand
386 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
dollars. It has a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty. It is neatly fur-
nished and is well lit up. This was the first church built in the Township of
Burford. Service is held every Sunday. There is Sunday school in the
morning, and a prayer meeting every Thursday. The average attendance at
this church is a hundred and twenty-five. The amount raised by contribution
for all purposes last year was S708. In 1844 the Bev. W. F. Clarke succeeded
Mr. H&ll as pastor, which office he continued to exercise till 1846, when the
vacant pulpit was filled by the Rev. W. H. Allworth for about nine months.
The Rev. James Vincent next occupied the pastorate, and held it for eight
years. He then left. The present minister, the Eev. WiUiam Hay, was elected
by the church members in 1856. Mr. Uay resides at Scotland.
The Medical Profession in Burford.
There are three medical men resident in Burford Village, Doctors Chiysler,
Harbottle and Bradly, and one at the Village of Cathcart, Dr. Aikman. Dr.
Harbottle united literature to his professional studies, being the author of
several pleasing poems in the newspapers which circulate most in Burford. Iti
this connection it may be mentioned that another Burford literateur is Mr.
John A. Smith, who lives a mile north of Burford Village. Dr. Chrysler has
been some years in practice, and is of opinion that although as a rule Burford
is a very healthy location, still there is ample room for practitioners of the
healing art The most marked kind of disease is that of the febrile malarial
type, which, however, generally assumes a mild form, and has never yet been
attended with fatal results. As an illustration of the healthy climate of Bur-
ford, it may be mentioned that in the village, opposite the Congregational
Church, reside an aged couple named Frazee, the husband having reached the
venerable age of niuety-eight, while his wife is ninet}*-four. The old gentle-
man retains all his faculties, except that, like Isaac in scripture, his sight is
waxing dim ; he can converse cheerfully as to lon<; past events in the history of
Burford, and takes pleasure in relating his early experience to his visitors.
Tears have told with more effect on his wife, who is a little deaf, but can still
converse intelligently. It is a touching sight to see her stand beside the old
man's chair holding his hand in her own. Truly, if earthly love can last so
long, there is a hope that it will endure for ever !
The Burford Agricultural Society.
One of these most useful associations for the improvement of practical agricul-
ture has been lately established in this township, and its exhibitions, which are
held in the fall, have been attended with much success. The President of the
Burford Agricultural Society is Mr. David H. Smith, of Hatley Village. Mr.
W. F. Mills is Vice-President ; Mr. Thomas Lloyd-Joues is Secretary-Treasurer.
Other leading members are : Messrs. W. Johnson, of Cathcart Village ; David
Beamer, of Princeton ; J. R McWilliams, of Mount VernOn ; J. C. Brethour,
of Burford ; Philip Kelly, of New Durham ; D. Farrell, Paul Huffman, William
Rutherford, of Burford ; Captain Marshall, of Harley Village ; and John Mac-
leUan, of New Durham. This society was organised in 1863. It has erected a
BITBFORD TOWNSHIP, 387
handsome exhibition bailding at Harley Village, at a cost of $1,000. The entries
at the annual exhibition are from two thoasand to two thousand five hundred.
The Volunteebs of Burford Township.
The Township of Burford has ever been forward in furnishing volunteers
when men were needed for the defence of Canada. In 1812, when Canada's
position as a dependency of Britain exposed our country to an invasion of
American armies which would otherwise never have taken place, the British
armies were engaged in a great European war, and Canada had for the most
part to be defended by Canadians. A force of volunteers was raised in Bur-
ford to aid Greneral Brock's attack on Detroit, but that city had surrendered
before the Burford men could reach Brock's headquarters. Thomas Horner,
badly treated although he had been by the Government at the time, gathered
around him seventy-five Iroquois warriors for the same purpose. Thomas
Homer received a commission as Captain of Militia. In 1828 we find a regular
volunteer company fully organi2ed, under command of Col. G. W. Whitehead.
Their muster-roll includes many names familiar in the history of Burford. Such
are those of Joseph Dutcher, Henry Dutcher, Reuben Dutcher, Adam Lamp-
man, Abisha Rand, Jonathan Ryder, Enoch Ryder, Piatt and Pierce Crank,
and the Higsons. The next volunteer organization in this township was effected
Joy the exertions of Edmund Yeigh, the present representative of the Teigh
family, during the apprehension of Fenian invasion in 1866. The company
then raised was known as ''No. 6, Brant Battalion," and was commanded by
Mr. Teigh for three years.
At present Burford Township furnishes two companies to our Canadian Volun-
teer Militia, infantry and cavalry. The infantry company belongs to the "Duf-
ferin Rifles" of Brant County, and is officered by J. T. Whitmore of Burford
Village as Captain, and R A Johnson as Lieutenant. Their present strength
is thirty-five. The cavalry company rank as No. 5 of the Second Regiment of
Cavalry, which has its headquarters at St Catharines. The Captain is W.
Marshall, and the Lieutenant is Thomas Lloyd-Jones of Bishopsgate Village.
Their present strength is ttirty-five troopers. This company has deservedly
earned the reputation of being one of the best cavalry companies in Canada,
and has repeatedly received the praise of the inspecting General at camp in
Niagara and elsewhere, for their excellent discipline, the soldierly appearance
of the men, and their well-trained horses. This is owing in no slight degree to
the care bestowed on the company by Captain Marshall, who received his mili-
tary training from the Colonel of the Thirteenth Hussars, one of the finest
cavalry corps in the English army, when quartered in Canada. Under his judi-
cious command the company consists of picked men, the sons ot* respectable
farmers, who take pride in being well mounted and equipped. From Captain
Marshall's long services as an officer of this company, it is confidently expected
that he will soon be promoted to the Majority of the Second Cavalry. The
company wears the same uniform as the Thirteenth Hussars, and is armed with
the sword and short rifle. A fine drill shed and two armories have been built
at Burford.
A veteran volunteer officer. Colonel Taylor, resides at Cathcart Village.
888 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
MAKUFACrrORIES.
Of these in Burford it may almost be said, as in the famous Chapter on
Snakes in Ireland, that " there are nona" There is indeed a carriage factory at
Burford, which was established thirty-one years ago by its present proprietor,
Mr. James Lloyd He employs from ten to twelve men, and turns out $8,000
worth of work yearly, it bears a well established reputation throughout
the township. The other manufacturing industries are snch as are peculiar to
an agricultural country. There are four cheese factories, all doing a prosperous
business, at the Villages of Harley, New Durham, Cathcart and Burford. Mr.
Bussel Smith has an extensive vineyard at Fairfield Plain, where he has met
with marked success in the culture of grapes and the manufacture of a pure
fruity wine, quite free from alcohol Mr. Kussel Smith came originally from
Ancaster. At his vineyard near Fairfield, from nine to twenty thousand
gallons of wine are manufactured annually. It is to be hoped that the increased
success of producers of pure Canadian wine may do something to check the
consumption of more deleierious beverages.
Societies, Secret and Other, in Burford.
As far back as 1858, the Masonic Order had organized a lodge in Burford.
It was known as No. 106, and numbered eighty members. The Master was
Forbes D. Wilson ; Aaron B. McWilliams, Secretary. The present officers are :
Forbes D. Wilson, Master ; James McWilliams, Warden ; A. K Kennedy, Sec-
retary ; F. G. Miles, Treasurer ; Rev. Mr. Hay, Chaplain ; Stephen Wetmore,
Inside Guardian ; W. Howard, Tyler. The lodge meets on Wednesday of or
before the new moon.
The Loyal Orange Body has been organized into a lodge in Burford for
thirty-seven years. In 1879 they erected a neat hall in Burford Village, where
their meetings are held on the first Monday in every month. The present
Master is Mr. Stephen Wetmore, Bailifi* of the Division Court ; the Deputy
Master is Albert Hall ; the Chaplain, James McAffray ; the Treasurer is J.
A Williams ; the Secretary, William Ford ; and the Director of Ceremonies,
Franklin Metcalf.
The Ancient Order of United Workmen, a benevolent society, also holds
monthly meetings in Burford Village. Of this the Master is Mr. W. G. NeUes ;
the Foreman is Mr. Cox, the present Postmaster of Burford Village and a
leading merchant of the place ; the Treasurer is Mr. Alfred Ledger ; and the
Recorder, Mr. Kennedy, rrincipal of the Public School.
There is also a Woman's Temperance Society, of which Mrs. Hayhurst, wife
>of the pastor of the Canada Methodist Church, is President.
Burford Village possesses an excellent brass band, of which the leader is A.
Messam ; A Muir, E flat comet; H. Rice and W. Davidson,. B flat cornets ; R
C. Muir, C. Whittaker and W. Smith, altos ; W. Gibson, tenor ; C. Day, W.
Messam and W. Landon, bass : J. Day and E. McAffray, drummers.
Village of Cathcakt.
This village, which was formerly named Sydenham, is situated on the same
road with Burford Village, of which, although six miles to the west of it, Cath-
BUKFORD TOWNSHIP. 389
cart may be regarded as a continuation. It has no water privilege, and has
grown little during the past decade. The village is prettily situated, and pre-
sents a neat, well-to-do appearance, surrounded by gardens and trees, and a
pleasant farm country. It possesses three churches, two of which belong to
the Methodists, one to the Episcopalians ; one physician, Dr. Aiken ; a cheese
factory, one hotel, two grocery and general stores, a waggon factory, two black-
smiths' shops, and about two hundred inhabitants. The Primitive Methodist
Church is a neat edifice of white brick, built in 1874, with a seating capacity
of three hundred. Services and a Sunday school are held*every Sunday. There
is a prayer meeting on Thursdays Services are well attended, the farmers'
families of the surrounding district driving thither and to the other churches
from a radius of several miles.
The other Methodist Church was built in 1878, and is also a handsome
structure of white brick, with a seating capacity of three hundred, and an aver-
age congregation of one hundred and fifty. The service is held every Sunday
in the afternoon and evening alternately. There is Sunday school in the after-
noon, and a prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings.
Harley
Is called after the name of one of the leading land-owners of this section of the
township. This small but picturesque village is situated almost in the centre
of the township. It has one church belonging to the Methodists, a plain frame
building. A Church of England service is also held on alternate Sundays,
and there is a Sunday school in the afternoon. Harley is a post village, and
has the advantage of being a station on the B. N. and P. B. Railway. It con-
tains a cheese factory, established for eleven years, which consumes the milk
of six hundred cows, and turns out fifteen cheese per day. There is one store,
a carriage shop, a tailor's and shoe store, the Agricultural Fair Grounds and
Exhibition Building, and the Granger's Hall.
New Durham.
New Durham is a small village on the western line of this township, and
contains two small churches, a Congregationalist and a Baptist, one hotel, one
store, and a cheese factory. There are about, one hundred inhabitants. The
village is situated on Big Creek, between the ninth and tenth concessions of
Burford.
Kelvin.
This is a post village at the centre of the town line between it and Wynd-
ham. It is sixteen miles distant from Brantford, and eight from Norwich. It
was laid out in 1856 by C. H. Foreman, and surveyed byiR Malcolm. It con-
tains three churches, an asheiy, a carriage factory, a saw and shingle mill, a
drug store, three blacksmiths' shops, two general stores, a grocery, and a hoteL
The Congregational Church is a neat frame building, erected in 1868 at a cost
of 91,000; it will seat two hundred. Service is held on alternate Sundays
by Rev. Mr. Hay, the Burford Congregational Pastor. The Church of the
390 fflSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Messiah was built by the Adventists in 1868, and has a seating capacity of two
hundred. It cost S800, and in it services are held on alternate Sundays.
Fairfield Plain.
r
This is a post village four miles directly south of Burfoni, and at the same
distance from the east towD line of Burford. There is a blacksmith's shop, and
near the village the extensive vine-growin<4 estate and handsome white brick
mansion of Mr. llussel Smith. There is also an exceedini^ly well designed
Methodist Church, by far the most ambitious ecclesiastical structure In the
township. It was built, the material being white brick, in 1868, and cost $4,000.
It has a seating capacity of three hundred. Service is held every Sunday by
the Rev. Mr. Hayhurst, of Burford. A Sunday school is also conducted in
connection with the church.
Personal Histories of Burford.
In this township, where fifty yeara ago political passions were so heated, it is
pleasant to look back on the honourable career of some of the leading men who,
though keen partisans, have closed their course amid the applause of both sides
in the political arena. Such a man, on the Loyalist side, was Charles S. Perley ,
the well-known Colonel Perley of the last forty years of Burford's history.
His burly figure, genial face, and brusque manner, the boisterous frankness of
Squire Western masking the kindly nature of an Allworthy, will long be
remembered by the people of Bishopsgate and Burford Villages, among whom
his life was spent He was born in New Brunswick, of a U. £. L. family, and
came to Upper Canada in 1801. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 he went to
reside in Norfolk, and though not a member of the Norfolk Battalion of Militia,
he rendered it considerable service. Ue was present at the famous '' Baces of
Malcolm's Mill," and was wont to recount with much humour the incidents of that
hasty retreat.
In 1837 Mr. Perley took an active part in raising a company, which he com-
manded with the rank of Captain, confirmed to him in 1838. He received
and most hospitably entertained Colonel MacNab and those " Men of Gore,"
the Wentworth Militia, in their march against Duncombe's force at Scotland.
Captain Perley accompanied the Loyalists when they occupied Scotland, where
Duncombe's force being disbanded, they found no enemy on whom to exercise
their valour. Then followed the " Tory Terror," which lasted till peremptory
orders from England and the recall in disgrace of Sir Francis Bond Head gave
it a sudden check. But in those days Captain Perley was quite ready and
willing to hang a good many of those neighbours to whom for many years of
his after life he showed such unfailing kindness. For the Roman poet said
truly,
Tempora mtUarUur^ et nos miUamur in tilts,
'*The times are changed, and we are changed with them."
For his many services ho was soon promoted to the rank of Lieut-Colouel.
But his life was thenceforward to be that of a man of peace, erecting mills
BUBFORD TOWNSHIP. 391
clearing farms, introducing new agricultural improvements, and by action and
counsel aiding in the development of the township in which he lived. He was
elected a member of the first Township Council that/ was formed in 1850, a
position which he held for eight years, and resigned from a conscientious scruple
which did him honour, because his constituents were opposed to a measure
which he was resolved if in office to support He lived in a goodly frame
mansion at Bishopsgate Village, on the site of the house built several years ago
by Mr. T. lioyd-Jones. In 1877 Colonel Perley's house was burned down,
soon after which he sold the site, with two hundred acres, to Mr. T. Lloyd-Jones,
the present owner. It is now several years since Colonel Perley died and was
buried in the English churchyard at Burford. To that church he had been a
liberal benefactor. His widow resides among her old friends in a comfortable
house, close to the site of her old home. A son of Colonel Perley's was recently
killed by a kick from his horse which he was tending in the stable. Others of
the Colonel's offspring live; one daughter is the wife of Mr. MacDonald, and one
of a Mr. Smith, of Toronto.
Robert Muie.
This gentleman, for many years a Justice of the Peace for the township, and
one of the first members of its Municipal Council, is owner of a fine property
in Burford Village. He is of English descent, his grandfather on the mother's
side having been Major Winette of the 13th Regiment of Foot, who served with
distinction in the European wars of the beginning of the present century. Mr.
Muir came to Burford thirty years ago, and found Burford Village a group of
shanties, with one store and a tavern. Having joined the militia, he was pro-
moted to the rank of captain. His example has been followed by several of
his sons, stalwart and soldier-like young gentlemen, who are leading members
of the Burford cavalry troop already described. Another son is a third year
student at the Provincial Universityi and another resides in Toronto, where he
is a member of the Civil Servica
Thomas Lloyd-Jones.
The father of this gentleman emigrated to Canada from Denbigh, in North
Wales, and having settled in Burford, died, his son being only six years old.
Being well educated, and gifted with much practical sagacity, the latter soon
became very successful both as a farmer and otherwise. In 1879 he purchased
the estate of Colonel Perley, and in 1880 built thereon the handsome and
spacious mansion which is his present residence. This is beautifully situated
at the eastern town line of Buiiord, near the Village of Bishopsgate. It is sur-
rounded by a park-like garden, with a grove of oak trees. Mr. Lloyd-Jones is
at present Reeve of the Township of Burford, and has been for some time
Lieutenant of the Burford Troop of Volunteer Cavalry, which owes not a little
to his force of character and genial manners. He is also Secretary-Treasurer of
the Burford Agricultural Society. Mr. Lloyd-Jones is married and has several
children, all young. His estate is land of the best quality, valued at $100 per
acre. He is a staunch Conservative, but is none the less a most popular man
in this stronghold of Liberalism, the Township of Burford.
».»
i
392 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
I , The Landon Family.
The late Stephen Landon was the first white child born ia Barford. His birth
took place in 1797 at his fatlier's residence, near Burtbrd. Though but iifteen
when the War of 1812 broke out, young Stephen shouldered a musket in the
Burford Company of Militia commanded by Captain White and Lieutenant
Jacob Teigh. When thus engaged, he took p^rt in the afTair at Malcolm's
Mill, elsewhere descril>ed. Mr. landon was always a staunch Reformer, a per-
sonal friend of Duncombe, and when the crisis came in 1837, like many another
who had fought in the Canadian Militia against an American invasion of
Canada, he boldly threw in his lot with those who gathered at Scotland to
support Mackenzie
He lived to a good old age, and died at his home a mile north of Bishopsgate
Village, Burford. His farm is now held by his sou, Mr. Stacey Landon.
The Late Henry Lester.
Mr. Henry Lester was one of the very earliest settlers, having come to Bur-
ford in 1800. He was the brother-in-law of Mr. Wooden, another old settler,
whose sons and daughters are now living in Hurford. Mr. Lester served as
Quartermaster all through the War of 1812. He died in 1878, leaving one aon.
The Yeigh Family.
John Yeigh, the founder of this family, came to Buifurd in 1800, being thus
one of the very first settlers. His first location was at the intersectio!i of the
Norwich Boad with the old London Road, which passes through the centre of
Burford. Mr. Yeigh came originally from Pennsylvania, and with true American
perseverance felled the woods and tilled the soil, till in a few years abundant
grain harvests and a flourishing farm rewarded his efforts. There were at that
time numerous hordes of the un^vilized Mohawk Indians, lately settled on the
Grand Biver Reserve, who roamed the forest as far as Burford in their
hunting expeditions. With these John Yeigh was on most friendly terms — a
very desirable state of things for a pioneer settler in those parts ; for although
this tribe of Indians was supposed to be friendly, their presence was looked on
with dread by the few and isolated white settlers, who imagined that the
Indian braves had a lax sense of the rights of property in the matter of pigs,
geese and dogs ; and that these stolen dainties were often cooked at a fire made
from the owner s fence rails. The Indians were always hospitably received at
the Yeigh homestead, and many a time might a party of these naked and painted
savages be seen cradling the wheat in the harvest fields, or at night, after such a
supper as their wigwams could never provide, smoking the pipe of peace, or
coiled up in their blankets asleep before the logs that blazed in the old-fashioned
fireplace. In 1811 Jacob Yeigh, Mr. John Yeigh's eldest son, having married*
took up his residence on the farm in Burford, where he lived and died. A year
after came the War of 1812. During this year Jacob and his brother Adam took
up arms in defence of Canada, then attacked by America on the unjustifiable
principle of striking a weak neighbour in order to spite a powerful enemy out
BURFORD TOWNSfflP. 393
of reach beyond the sea. In that duel Canada, in spite of more than^one
reverse, held her own. Jacob Yeigh held the rank of lieutenant So distin-
guished were their services that a handsome silver medal was awarded them in
England by the authorities, but it was withheld for a time in consequence of
their active participation in the rising of 1837. When, on a false report of
Mackenzie's success, the Nationalists of Brant and Oxford met in arms in Oak-
land, the two brothers rode, well armed, to join their ranks. One who saw the
scene has stated to the present writer that the then village blacksmith of
Bishopsgate, the predecessor of Mr. Gibson, seeing with professional acuteness
that the horses were gone, and guessing they were gone where they might not
return, and that the other property of a " rebel " leader would certainly be con-
fiscated, was much exercised concerning the payment of a few dollars due to
him for blacksmithing. He went at once to demand payment from young Mrs.
Yeigh, who had no ready money, but fortunately enough spare barley to satisfy
this inharmonious blacksmith.
After the disbandment of Duncombe's force Jacob Yeigh escaped to the
United states. His brother was captured, imprisoned at Hamilton, where he
suffered the most inhuman treatment, was sentenced to die, as Lount had
already died, on the scaffold, and lay for weeks expecting his doom. But when
the Liberal Government in England sternly rebuked the faction of which Sir
Francis Bond Head was the tool, and general amnesty was forced on the
Family Compact clique, Yeigh was set at liberty. He returned to his home,
where he lived for some time. His son, Mr. Edmund Yeigh, inherited his
estate, which he managed personally, residing at the old homestead in Burford.
He now lives in Toronto, being attached to the Globe newspaper in a position
of trust His sister, Miss Yeigh, resides in her father's house.
Mr. Edmund Yeigh organized the Burford Infantiy Company of Volunteers,
of which he was the first captain at the time of the Fenian raid on our country.
The Horner Family.
As being the first settler of Burford, the leading events of Thomas Homer's
career have been already narrated in our sketch of the township history. It
will have been seen that he sufifeied much injustice, in the first place, from the
successor of General Simcoe, who refused to confirm the grant made by that
gentleman of the Township of Blenheim ; in the next place, from the unjust
suspicions of tlie then Government of Upper Canada, who deprived Mr.
Horner of his official position on the eve of the War in 1812. In both cases
Thomas Horner showed a magnanimity of which inferior minds would have
been incapable. He carried out the conditions of settlement, the building of a
mill at his own expense, on which the land had been granted ; and so far from
showing a petulant disposition to turn against the Government which had in
so summary a manner dismissed him from his official position as Deputy-Lieu-
tenant of the County of Oxford, he came to their aid in the critical time of
Brock's march against Detroit. At last, though late in the day, Mr. Homer's
services were recognized He was chosen to represent Oxford, of which at
that time Burford was a part, from 1820 until his death in 1834. He held the
Commission of the Peace for many years ; and to all who have explored the
394 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
records of Burford, as Mr. Trimble has truly said, his signature to all offidal
documents for a space extending over many years of the early period of the
settlement is familiar.
In those days, magistrates often undertook one of the most pleasant duties
of ministers of religion, in solemnizing marriage. Many stories are told of Mr.
Homer's genial good humour when called in to act as High Priest of Hymen.
The first marriage solemnized by him was that of James Smiley and Eunice
Martin, in 1801. Mrs. Smiley lived to the venerable age of ninety-two, having
died at her home in Brantford, in August, 1875. This township seems excep-
tionally favourable to longevity.
Michael Showers.
This representative of the earliest pioneer days of Burford was, in the truest
sense of the word, a United Empire Loyalist. During the War of the American
BevolutioQ, he and his family suffered much from their " Whig " opponents, and
when the latter triumphed so* gloriously in achieving the independence of their
country, Michael Showers, like many others of the old Tory party, found that he
was not wanted in the new United States, and accordingly made his way to Nia-
gara, then the capital and principal settlement of Upper Canada^ Here money
difficulties overtook him, and face to face with destitution, be obtained, from the
British Governor who then ruled what is now the Doniiniou of Canada, a pas-
sage to Quebec, and sufficient help in money. Next year he returned to Upper
Canada, where, at the old Niagara Settlement, his son, Michael Showers, Junr.,
was bom in 1798. The elder Michael Showers served in the War of 1812,
holding the rank of Captain. He was a brave and judicious officer, one of those
Canadians who did good service to their country during the ungenerous and ill-
judged invasion to which Canada was subjected in consequence of her position,
at that early time, as a colony of a foreign power. This representative of the
Showers family is at present resident at Burford Village.
Dr. Duncombe.
This celebrated popular leader is mentioned in no history of Burford Town-
ship, although he was for many years a prominent resident and land-owner at
Bishopsgate Village, Burford, and exercised an influence unparalleled in the
annals of the township. But the time has gone by when the fear of stirring
up the mud of party animosity need deter us from facing the facts of history;
whatever our political attitude at the present day, we cannot ignore the fact
that the leaders of the patriot movement of 1837 were at least single-hearted
men, with hands unsoiled by '' scandals \* that they risked their lives to win
for us the political rights which we now enjoy, like light and air, without a
thought ^ut the younger generation of Canadians is l^ginning to read Cana-
dian history unbiassed by obsolete prejudices of Grit or Tory, and is not indis-
posed to honour those who first conceived the idea of Canadian Nationality.
Dr. Duncombe's early career as a country physician has already been de-
scribed, as also his political leadership in the Legislative Assembly in the long
and hopeless struggle against the Family Compact oligarchy. It has been
BURFORD TOWNSHIP. 395
described how a false report of Mackenzie's succes^s caused an immediate rush
to arms among the Reformers of the two Counties of Brant and Oxford ; how the
patriot volunteers gathered at Duncombe's summons at the Village of Scotland ;
and how, when two days later the true state of things at Montgomery's Farm
became known, Duncombe insisted on disbandment In this he was opposed
by Sackrider, a veteran of long^experience in the War of 1812, who pro-
TOsed a plan which, if carried out, might have given serious trouble to
Sir Francis Bond Head. This was to withdraw in full force to the pine
woods which then covered the southern portion of Burford, and there
make a stand against Colonel MacNab's militiamen. They would have
had a base of operations, for the whole country aruund them was full of
patriot sympathizers ; provisions and supplies of all kind could have been easily
obtained ; and composed as Buncombe's little army was of brave determined
men — not the dregs of a town population like those who in European cities fight
for the sake of excitement and under the banner of political chimeras, but
sober, earnest farmers who risked much more than mere life, and who fought
for the same liberties which animated Cromwell's Ironsides — it seems quite pos«
sible that the patriots might have held their own under the Burford pines. Had
they done so for three weeks, two-thirds of the farmers of Upper Canada would
have risen to support them. But Duncombe, like O'Connell in a similar crisis
had a horror of bloodshed which unfitted him for military leadership. The
force was disbanded. MacNab and his " men of Gore " followed close on their
tracks to Scotland, and the ''terror" bc^an. For a month Duncombe lay
concealed at the house of his sister, Mrs. Shennick, a few miles from London.
The story of his escape has never yet been told to the public. The present writer
is able to give it from the statement of the gentleman who, by his intrepidity
and knowledge of the western part of the Ontario frontier, aided an escape
which recalls those of some of Scott's Jacobite heroes a century before. Charles
Tilden, nncle of Dr. Hagel of Toronto, was, with several of the Hagel family
among the Scotland insurgents. Living near Amherstburgh, he happened to be
specially well acquainted with the entire western frontier, and noticed that
althooghl Sir Francis Head's agents had placed guards all along the line to
prevent the escape of " rebels," now that a month had passed from the first
excitement, the vigilance was much relaxed. Tilden went to see Duncombe,
who, in the depth of winter (January, 183S, was a specially cold seiAon), was
kept hid in a hay-loft, and supplied with food by stealth by those who left the
house as if to feed the cattle. Tilden urged him to attempt escape disguised as a
woman, which Duncombe's smooth round face rendered possible enough. The
attempt was dangerous ; a reward had been offered for his head, and all over
the country the noble savages of the Grand Biver Beserve were on the lookout
for his scalp and the blood-money it would bring. They left the house next
day in an old-fashioned farmer's box sleigh. Tildeu drove, Mrs. Shennick and
Duncombe sat side by side, the latter disguised as an elderly farmer's wife.
Mr& Sbenuick's little girl, a child of nine, was taught to address him as
" auntie." All day they drove along without molestation ; at night they stopped
at a country hotel, where there not being sufficient accommodation, Charles
Tilden had to sleep with one of the hotel-keeper's boys, while the three
" womankind " had a room to themselves. Unable to sleep from the excite*
396 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
ment of his position, Dr. Duncombe sat up all night At early dawn they
drove away breakfastless, and arrived after several nours' drive at the crossing
place, which was at a village opposite what is now Marine City, Michigan.
They drove into the yard of a tavern where were the soldiers of a party in
command of a sergeant, posted there to watch the crossing place, and it' pos-
sible arrest the " rebel " chief. Very calmly Tilden waterea his horses, and
then addressing the sergeant in command as ** Captain," asked if the ice was safe
and if he would kindly send one of his men to guide them to the right track.
The sergeant asked whence he came. Tilden replied, truly enough, that he
came from London, and was going with his aunt and mother to visit some
friends, whose names he mentioned, on the opposite coast of Michigan. The
sergeant ordered one of his men to accompany them across the ice. When
they had got half way across the river, the young soldier said that they could
easily find their way for the rest of the track, and was about to leave them.
Dr. Duncombe handed Charles Tilden fifty cents for the soldier, and while the
latter was thanking them, felt very much inclined to send Dr. Duncombe's
compliments to the sergeant who had 'furnished them with a guide, but
refrained lest he should spoil the chance of some other unfortunate who might
try the same stratagem for evading the blood-hounds of the Family Compact
Government. In a few minutes he stood " a free man on a free soil." They
entered a store to buy some food for Mrs. Sbennick's little girl, and Duncombe,
now careless of preserving his feminine demeanour, soon attracted attention.
When it became kuown that this was the Canadian republican. Dr. Duncombe, a
crowd gathered, and with characteristic American humour insisted on Dr. Dun-
combe making a speech in his woman's dress. Thus he escaped capture, which
inthose days would have been certain death. A long and prosperous career
in the States lay before him. He was of course included in the general
amnesty, and his Burford property was restored to him. Charles Tilden's son
lives in possession of a farm of two hundred acres which Dr. Duncombe deeded
to him as an acknowledgment of his father's generous friendship.
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP. 397
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP.
Organization.
This township, which is in shape almost a right-angled triangle, was origin-
ally known as the " Townseiid Gore," but was afterwards attached to Burford,
and then called " Burford Gore." It was surveyed, in 1796, by Deputy-Sur-
veyor Thomas Walsh, as an appendage to the Township of Townsend.
By Act 38 George III., chap. 5, section 34, 1798, which came in force
January 1, 1800, it is enacted " that the triangular tract of land called Town-
send Gore be added to and become part of the Township of Burford." Again,
by Act 2 George IV., chap. 3. section 11, 1821, it is further enacted " that the
gore of land attached to the Township of Burford be formed into a separate
and distinct township by the name of the Township of Oakland."
The name *" Oakland" was suggested by a ridge oi oak trees running through
the township, and which has almost entirely vanished beneath the inexorable
axe of the woodman. W. C. Trimble, in " Brant County History," 1875, says
the name " Oakland" was given on the township becoming a municipality of
the County of Brant. Now, as by Act 38 (1798), above quoted, this " triangu-
lar tract of land" became a component part of the Township of Burford, and
as, again by the same Act, the Townships of Burford, Norwich, Dereham,
Oxford on the Thames, Blandford and Blenheim, constituted the County of
Oxford, and as by the same Act it was further provided ** that the Counties of
Norfolk, Oxford and Middlesex, with as much of this Province as lies to the
westward of the Home District and the District of Niagara, to the southward
of Lake Huron, and between them and a line drawn due north from a fixed
boundary (where the easternmost limit of Oxford intersects the River Thames)
till it arrives at Lake Huron, do constitute and form the London District," so
Oakland formed part of the County of Oxford, in the London District, and
remained so until the reconstruction of that county in 1851.
Oakland having now become a component part of the County of Oxford, it
may not be irrelevant to the intrinsicality of this history to give a short sketch
of the vicissitudes attending the execution of municipal and judicial govern-
ment in the early days, as far as relates to that county. From the year 1800
till 1803, the courts were held in the house of James Munro, in the Township
of Charlotteville. In 1804 they were removed to the house of Job Lodor, inn-
keeper at Turkey Point, an original Government reservation, selected by
Governor Simooe for a town and garrison, and where a town had been laid
out by order of the Government. The courts were continued to be held at
Lodor's inn, until a log Gaol and a two-story framed Court House were erected
near the same place, at the expense of the district, by Job Lodor, contractor.
The first story of this building was used as a court room, while the second
398 HISTORY OF BRANT COUMTY.
was divided off with rough boards for jary rooms. Here Justice held her scales
until it became necessary to appropriate the building to the use of troops
during the War of 1812 and two following years. The names of the Judges
who attended these courts were Powell and Allcock. They always came by
water, and were often detained en route by stormy weather. James Bostwick
was Sheriff, and Job Lodor Gaoler. The first poor wretch condemned to the
gallows was a negro, for burning down a store at Culver's place, Woodhouse»
about two miles south of the present Town of Simcoe.
In accordance with 55 Geo. III., chap. 9, 1815, the Courts were removed
from Turkey Point to the Village of Vittoria, where they were held first
at the residence of Thomas Finch, and then at that of Matthias Steel, until
the brick Court House was completed at Vittoria, about the year 1822.
This structure was accidentally burnt down in November, 1825, necessitating
a resort again to private houses in Vittoria, and subsequently at St. Thomas^
until a temporary Court House was erected in London. They were then
held in such temporary building until the present permanent one in that
city was completed in 1826. In 1837, by Act 7 William IV., chap. 30, it
is enacted " that so soon as it shall be ascertained that a good and sufiicient
Gaol and Court House shall have been erected in the Town of Woodstock
for the security of the prisoners and the accommodation of the Courts, it
shall be lawful for the Govemor-Greiieral to declare, by proclamation, the
Townships of Zorra, Nissouri, Blandford, Blenheim, the Oxfords, Burford,
Oakland, Norwich and Dereham, and the Town of Woodstock, a separate and
distinct district by the name o^ the District of Brock." The proclamation
promulgating this Act was issued November 30th, 1839, and the first court
for the distnct was held at the Town of Woodstock in April, 1840. In 1845
the County of Oxford was by enactment composed of the Townships of Bland-
ford, Blenheim, Burford, Dereham, Nissouri, Norwich, Oakland, Bast Oxford,
North Oxford, West Oxford, East Zorra and West Zorra, and all of these town-
ships were attached to the London District. In 1849, by Act 12 Vic, chap.
78, districts were abolished and counties substituted, coming into force on 1st
January, 1850. At this date, by virtue of the Act, the Township of Oakland
was set apart for municipal purposes, and its first Council met on the 21st
January, same year, at Isaac B. Malcolm's inn, at what is now known as the
Village of Oakland. The names of the first Township Councillors were :
Eliakim Malcolm, Reeve ; James Malcolm, John Ekldy, Charles Chapin,^and
Wellington McAllister, only two of whom are now living, namely, John Eddy
and Wellington McAllister. The late John Tojme acted as Township Clerk.
By an Act passed on the 2nd August, 1851 (14 & 15 Vic, chap. 5), to make
certain alterations in the territorial divisions of Upper Canada for judicial,
municipal and otlier purposes, it was provided that from and after the 1st
January, 1852, Upper Canada should be divided into certain counties, and that
the County of Brant should consist of the Townships of Brantford,. Onondaga,
Tuscarora, Oakland, South Dumfries and Burford, and the Village of Paris.
Oakland has now been traced to its present position on the map of the
County of Brant, where it is discovered as the smallest of the townships, and
occupying the centre of the south part, being bounded on the north and east
by the Township of Brantford, on the west by the Township of Burford, and
Norman Hamilton
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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP. 401
on the south by the Township of Townsend, County of Norfolk. Taxes were
payable in London, about sixty-five miles distant, at one time ; and, about the
year 1821, the voting for general elections necessitated two days' travel over
terribly bad roads. As the voters had to camp out, they carried their provisions
with them. For a long time there was no money in circulation in the town-
ship, and the only way of getting it readily was by taking farm produce to the
distilleries, trading it off for whiskey, and then taking the whiskey to Niagara,
Hamilton or Toronto, &c., and selling it for cash. There was not a great deal
of grain raised even in 1837, and the first money paid for wheat, nearer than
Hamilton, appears to have been by one Jackson, in Brantford, who allowed
fifty cents per bushel, the same price as paid in Hamilton. Old-fashioned
wooden ploughs were the only agricultural implements in use till a cast-iron
plough was iutroduced into the township in 1823. About sixty years ago, and
for some time afterwards, there were three distilleries, i?wo in the township and
one on the borders of Oakland and Burford Townships, and until about the
year 1836 there was no store of any kind in the township, the nearest being at
Mount Pleasant. In 1817 a cow was worth twenty-five dollars, a sheep or an
acre of land two dollars and' a half. Thus, in those days a sheep could purchase
an acre of land. In 1815 land was sold at about fifty cents an acre, and in
1817 it had only increased to two dollars and a half, while in 1851 it may be
stated as having been sold at from six to ten dollars per acre.
The area of Oakland Townslhip is 10,235 acres of excellent land, studded with
fine, prosperous and well-fenced farms, on which are erected substantial and com-
fortable dwelling-houses, bams, &c, Th^.iindulating character of the profile of
this township is a distinguishing trait lii its topography, while the nature of its
well cultivated soil asserts its claims 'to tinbounded fertility in the production of
wheat and other cereals, as weU as stock-raising. A gravelled road, leading
from Brantford by way of Mount Pleasant Village, provides an excellent high-
way to the chief centre of the county. It traverses the township through the
Village of Oakland, and strikes the Burford town line at Scotland. Another
gravelled thoroughfare runs across the east end, known as Cockshutt's Road.
These highways are the only arteries for travel, as no line of railway touches
the township at any point The only stream is that known as Malcolm's
Creek, and its tributaries, the main stream of which has its source in the
swamps that lie to the northward. This creek runs south till it purveys to the
milling industries of Scotland, when it assumes a slight deflection eastward,
and after extending its privileges to the Village of Oakland, leaves the town-
ship a few miles west of the " Indian line."
The tributaries are insignificant, although in their aggregate they add no
inconsidei^ble quota to the main stream. There are imll-cumis or ponds at
necessary points, most notable among which is the " Malcolm's Mill-pond " at
the Village of Oakland. Here, early on a Sunday morning in the year 1814,
the American General, McArthur, with over a thousand mounted riflemen,
caused some hundred of brave local militiamen to beat a hasty retreat. History
records how the commanding officers of the Canadian forces, perhaps with
commendable zeal in their efforts to excute a masterly flank movement, plunged
with their war horses into the pond itself, and were with difficulty rescued
through the energetic exertions of their subalterns ; and history further hands
24
402 HISTOBY OF BRAIIT COUNTY.
down to posterity the casualties in this contest in killed, wounded and
missing as — one man ! The Americans on this occasion burned down Malcolm's
Mill before leaving, and having fired the mills at Waterford, nuignanimously
left the Province by way of Long Point, witHout gobbling up the whole country.
Although differences of opinion exist as to who were the first pioneers to settle
in this township, still it is generally conceded that the antecedents of some of
the Malcolm families, who form in themselves a little colony in the southern
portion of the township, were at least among the very earliest of the haidy
adventurers to undertake the task of clearing the forest and subduing the soiL
Among those of the early pioneers and settlers still surviving may be mentioned
Malcolm Brown, Squire William Thomson, John Eddy, M. H. Baldwin, Grea
.Cunningham, Bichwl Oowles, An^s Campbell, Samuel Thomson, Hiram
Westbrook, Jonathan Plowman, WeUington McAllister, Francis Fairchild and
Matthew Messecar. The first physician in the township appears to have been
Dr. Pomeroy, followed by Dr. David Duncombe. The first post office must
have been in the neighbourhood of 1840. Since the erection of the county
thirty-one Beeves have been elected to represent the township at the County
Council. A list of these will be found under the heading of '' County."
The Township Hall, which is of white brick, was built in the year 1855 at a
cost of S2,400, and is placed on probably thQ highest piece of ground in the
township, and can be seen for many miles round. The Township Clerks of
the past were as follows : John Toyne, appointed at date of organization of the
township, 1850, resigned 1st January, 1864 ; Wm. Vivian, appointed 1st Jan-
uary, 1864, resigned 29th August, 1873 ; O. H. Lawrence, appointed 29th
August, 1873, died October, 1880; Wul Thompson, Senr., appointed 18th
October, 1880, to fill vacancy during balance of the year. Henry Key, the
present incumbent, was appointed 17th January, 1881.
Census.
The census of this township for the three past decades, as given below, shows
an apparent discrepancy not explainable here, or else afiords evidence of a
decrease in the population. The figures of th^ census for the years 1852 and
1861 are taken from indirect official sources, those for 1871 and 1881 from
direct official returns. For 1852 the population was 840; 1861, 1087; 1871,
1104 ; 1881, 939.
The population in 1881 is divided into the following religious denominations :
Baptists, 210 ; Catholics, 37 ; Church of England, 52 ; Congregationalists, 162 ;
Methodists (all kinds), 443 ; Presbyterians, 30 ; Quakers, 5. Total, 939.
The latest official returns relating to the soil, climate, topographical features,
cultivable area and products of, and the progress and condition of husbandry in
this township, will be found under the head of " County."
There are only two villages in the township, the largest of which is
Scotland,
Situated on th^ town line of Burfoi*d and Oakland, on a gravelly elevation, com-
manding a*tolerably extensive view, and resting partly in each of those town-
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP. 403
ships. It is eleven miles from Brantford, fourteen from Paris, and two west of
Oakland Village, and has a thriving population numbering about four hundred.
The village was laid out by EliaJsim Malcolm, who also surveyed it The
post office, with Henry Lyman as first Postmaster, was established in 1855.
Charles Eddy opened the first store in 1836, and Horace Foster the first hotel
in 1830. George Malcolm built the first grist-mill in 1861, and Eliakim Mal-
colm erected the first saw-mill in 1848. Malcolm's Creek runs through a por-
tion of the village, and affords excellent water-power where required to the
several industries, which consist of a woollen mill, grist-mill, tannery, cooperage,
stave factory, foundry, waggon and carriage works, carriage apd buggy works,
three general stores, and ten or twelve other occupations. There are also two
medical men, J. R Malcolm, M.D., F.RC.S., and K W. Tegart, MD., and oae at-
torney, Y. H. Malcolm. Not to be behind in literary attainments, the " clachan ''
boasts of a semi-weekly amateur paper published by A. E. Eddy, under the
title of The Scotland Amateur Journal. Mayhap this modest but aspiring
little sheet may yet prove itself a nucleus of some future day bulwark of
" people's rights," and assert its position among the linguistic heroes that have
proven for ages past, and will yet herald forth for ages to come, the legend
" The pen is mightier than the sword." * ,
The Woollen Mill of Marcus Malcolm & Son was established by the senior
member of the firm in 1865, with a capital of $5,000.00 It was run as a cus-
tom mill until 1880, when the business was changed into the manufacturing of
flannels and blankets for the wholesale trade exclusively. It is a one set miU^
has eleven looms, five narrow and six broad, and gives employment to twenty-
five hands. Both steam and water-power are used, and an average of three
himdred pairs of ''shanty" blankets for the North- West, and eight hundred
yards of flannel, are weekly turned out
The Tannery owned by Bobert Gillespie, and established twenty years ago, is
said to be the best west of Toronto. From nine hundred to one thousand
dollars' worth' of hides are converted into leather annually.
The Malcolm Cooperage and Starch Factory, with Mr. Eddy as proprietor,
the Foundry and Telephone Plough Works, owned by H. F. Malcolm & W.
K Hooker, the Waggon and Carriage Works of Ceorge Phillips, and the Carriage
and Buggy Factory of Albert Hooker, are all in a most thriving and healthy
condition, each affording emplovment to a large number ot industrious and eco*
nomical artisans. The general storekeepers are : John A. Eddy, Postmaster ;
R O. Malcolm, Telegraph Office ; Charles Van Dusen. The vilkge '' smithy "
is well represented in the persons of Charles Stewart and Samuel Hunter &
James Hagerman, the two latter being in partnership.
In fancy wood-turning and designing John Taylor may be said to excel, while
Foster Brothers are engaged in an extensive cabinet-making business. The
two hotels in the village, both on the Oakland side of the town line, are the
Commercial, kept by George Hall, and the Jackson House, of which Eliakim
Malcolm is landlord A grist-mill, for many years carried on by Dr. Malcolm,
was converted* some two years ago into a foundry for the manufacture of
ploughs mainly, and before referred to in this sketch. On the 25th July, 1868,
a boiler explosion in this mill created much havoc and no little excitement
Masses of iron, weighing in some instances 150 pouuds, were hurled to immense
404 HISTOBY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
distances, end the engine itself was lifted away for some thirty feet. No lives
were lost, although Dr. Malcolm and the engineer had very narrow, in fact,
almost miraculous escapes. The first store in the village was opened by Henry
Toyne. It was frame built, and stood on the Oakland side of the town line. A
fire destroyed it about the year 1 880, after having been used as a private resi-
dence for some years by Henry Lyman, but was immediately rebuilt Some
sixty years ago there was a carding mill in Scotland, carried on by the father
of Finlay Malcolm. The first viDage school house, one of a very primitive style
of architecture, had been for some time back occupied as a blacksmith's shop
by one Thomas Whelan, a transition not unsuggestive of the moulding the
young minds into channels of learning to forging the crude metal into imple-
ments of industry — from the dominie, with spectacles on nose, looking for
" The whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school, "
to
" The smith, a mighty man is he.
With large and sinewy hands ;
And the muscles of his brawny a>ms
Are strong as iron bands.**
This old school house was recently torn down, and it now mingles with the
dust of ages. The earliest tavern is said to have been kept by Finlay Malcolm,
father of the present Eliakim Malcolm, and was fix)m sixty to seventy years ago
the only one in Oakland Township.
Churches.
There are two churches in this village, Congregational and Baptist, the former
being situated on the Burford and the latter on the Oakland side of the line.
The Congregational Church was organised in the year 1835 by the Rev.
James Hall, a minister sent out to Canada by the Colonial Missionary Society, in
connection with the Congregational Union of England and Wales.
Among the original members were Justus Smith, James Oswald, Quartus
Smith, Levi SteinhofT, Mrs. J. Smith, Mrs. Finlay Malcolm, Robt Elliott, Joseph
Smith, Mr. and Mis. Slumand Bingham, Mrs. Samantha Malcolm, John Kelly,
Mrs. S. D. Malcolm, Augustus Malcolm, Mrs. A. Malcolm, Mrs. Geo. W. Bungay
and J. Marlatt Bev. James Hall, the first pastor, resigned his charge in 1^3.
He is said to be the first clergyman of any denomination in Oakland Township.
He held divine service for some time in the old school house in Scotland, already
referred to. The Rev. W. F. Clark was installed in his place on Oct 14th,
1844. He removed in the spring of 1846, and the Rev. W. H. All worth offi-
ciated as a temporary supply, during the following winter. The Eev. "Wm. Hay,
a student from the Congregational College at Toronto, was then called to the
pa.storate, on 13th of October, 1847 ; was ordained, and entered upon his minis-
terial duties on the 19th January, 1848. His pastorate still continues over this
and the Burford congregation, the largest of this denomination in Ontario. The
first Deacons of the church are dead, viz. : James Oswald, Levi Steinhoff, John
M. Marlatt, Jastus Smith, Chas. Chapin and Robert Eadie. The acting Deacon
OAEUIND TOWNSHIP. 405
are Angostus Malcolm and Alonzo Foster. At the date of Bev. Mr. Hay's call
to the pastorate there was no church building, but the members, who numbered
some thirty, were in the habit of assembling in a school house. The present
church buUding, which is situated on the Burford side of the line, on the top
of a rising piece of ground, was erected or rather finished in 1850. Its seating
capacity, with gallery, is 250. In the tower is a good bell, and in the choir a
pipe organ.
In 1856, a number of the members turned off and formed a church at Kelvin,
Burford Township, which is now in charge of Rev. C. S. Pedley.
The present membership numbers 142. The Sunday school has ten teachers
and about one hundred scholars. This was the tliird or fourth building for wor-
ship in the county.
The minister in charge has resided thirty-two years in the house adjoining
the church, and during that period has married 317 couples.
The Baptist Church, a frame building erected in 1849, on the Oakland side of
the line, has a seating capacity of 350, with a membership numbering some
120. The Eev. T. L. Hyde is the present pastor, and is supported by six
Deacons. The Sunday school, under the superintendence of J. B. Merritt, has
seven teachers with seventy scholars, and holds fifty-two sessions.
Secret and other Societies.
As far back as 1835, a temperance organization seems to have existed in
Scotland, and has been progressing ever since.
Masonic. — Scotland Lodge No. 193, Grand Lodge of Canada, was organized
July 11th, 1867, and originated from a number of members of a Burford lodge,
among whom were Fred. Mudge, T. O. Prowse, Marcus Malcolm, Chas. Whitney,
Eev. Wm. Hay, Dr. McLinn and W. S. Walker. Mr. Fred. Mudge was the first
W. M. The lodge meets in a hall over the school room. The present officers
are : Eev. Wm. Hay, T. P. M.; Lewis Winegarden, W. M; Albert Foster, S. W.;
James Hagerman, J. W.; Marcus Malcolm, Secretary; Joseph D. Eddy, Treas.;
James A, Smith, Nathan Gordon, Deacons ; E. Durham, Tyler. The Eev. Wm.
Hay was Grand Chaplain in 1880. A Masonic lodge existed in Scotland in
1839, but does not appear to have existed long.
Conadicm Order of Foresters No. 44, Village of Scotland, meets last Saturday
of each month in Foster's Hall. This court was organized 13th March, 1880,
and was instituted by D. D. H. C. E. Bro. Whale, of Waterford, assisted by
other brothers from Waterford. There are fifteen charter members, viz.: Joshua
Goodwin, Eliakim Malcolm, Marcus Malcolm, William M. Boughner, William
Foster, William I. Winegarden, William McCoombs, Thomas Smith, Abdul E.
Eddy, James W. Eenwick, William E. Hall, Isaac Stenebaugh, Morgan Silver-
thorn, James Lindsay and Walter E. Hooker. The present principal officers
are: Walter K Hooker, Chief Eanger ; Eliakim Malcolm, Secretary ; William
M Boughner, Financial ^Secretary ; William Foster, Treasurer.
Scotland Lodge, No. 64, A.O.XJ. Workmen, was organized on April 15th, 1880,
under charter. It was instituted by G. E. Pennington, D. G. M. W., and the
original, or charter members, were : Abram Homing, P.M.W.; Wm. Foster,
M. W.; James Bawtinhimer, Foreman ; John W. Vivian, Overseer ; Horace F.
Malcolm, Eecorder; J. E. Malcolm, M.D., Financier; Truman Messecar,
406 BISTORT OF BRANT COUNTY.
Receiver ; Thomas Waugh, Guide ; Robert Nobbs, LW.; Greorge Bater, O.W.
Thomas Waugh, John Waugh and Abram Homing, Trustees.
Above named held office until January 1st, 1882, when the following were-
elected : Abram Homing, AL W.; Wm. Devlin, Foreman ; George Robinson,
Overseer ; H. F. Malcolm, Financier ; George Burtch, Guide ; Thomas Waugh,
Watchman.
The Scotland Amateur Brass Band, consisting of fourteen members of good
standing, was organized on the 14th of June, 1875, and was instituted by J.
B. Martin. The original members were A. T. Pollard, J. Martin, Charles
Stewart, J. Stewart, R. B. Stewart, — Anderson, — Messecar, Wesley Taylor,
J. Hamilton Malcolm, Walt R Malcolm, - with J. B. Malcolm as leader. At
this time it was called the Good Templars' Band, and was reorganized on the
16th October, 1876, by Professor Alexander Johnson, late of H M. 78th Regi-
ment of Highlanders, who is the present conductor. It has some thirteen
members, who are handsomely uniformed. The present officers are : Marcus
Malcolm, President ; W. M. Boughner, Secretary ; and Charles Stewart, Treas-
urer.
Settlement.
The date of earliest legitimate settlement may be traced back as far as the-
latter end of the last centurv, and there seems to be little doubt but that
Finlay Malcolm was among the very first to brave the hardships endured in
carving out a future home on the spot that is now a thriving and happy com-
munity. Indeed, Isaac Winegarden, who was born in Scotland Village in
1820, and whose father came to the township in 1812, avers that he can
remember only Finlay Malcolm as a man of any consequence living during hia
boyhood days. The inhabitants of Scotland and neighbourhood may be said
to be generally descendants of Canadians and American immigrants, with a
sprinkling of the mother country element. The first settlers, in memory of
the native land of many of them, the land of the mountain and the flood, gave
the name to the village by which it will ever be known. Esto perpetual
Oakland Village
Is situated in the southern section of the township, about one mile from the
county line of Norfolk. It is nine miles distant from Brantford, two east of
Scotland Village, and has a population of about two hundred. Malcolm's-
Creek, which runs through the village, provides ample water-power. Oakland
was laid out in 1810 by Surveyor Thomas Walsh ; but it cannot be said to have-
advanced in growth in the same ratio as most of its contemporaries ; indeed,,
some of the old pioneers who came into the township over sixty years ago-
declare that there were in those days nearly as many houses in Oakland
Village as there are now. The cause of this is not very apparent, as industry
and thrift have ever been exceptional characteristics of every portion of that
conmiunity. The beauty of the surrounding landscape, however, amply
recompenses any such desideratum. The village, when in summer sunsmne-
clad, and reposing in the bosom of encircling hills, looks as if it were but nest-
ling in the valley fondly seeking for nothing more ambitious than quiet peace
ana the poetic charms of solitude, whilst the babbling brook, like the swell of
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP. 407
some sweet tune, with many merry sallies and dancing onward on its way,
seems to re-echo, in transitvby the lines of Tennyson :
*' For men may oome, and men may go,
Bat I go on for ever.*'
Oakland Post Office was established in 1840, with John Toyne as first Post-
master, who also opened the first store in company with the late William
Muirhead and Henry Lyman, in the year 1836. On the death of Mr. Toyne,
his widow succeeded as Postmistress, which office she held until a year or two
ago, when she was succeeded by the present Postmaster, Geo. Taylor. The first
grist-mill was built in 1806 by F. & J. Malcolm, who also erected a saw -mill
in 1807. The village contains the following mills, factories, stores, etc. :
Grist-mill, owned by Charles Vivian, has a four stone run with a capacity of
200 bushels per day. Cheese factory, established in 1874 by William Martin,
produces on an average 72 cheese per week, each weighing sixty-five pounds.
Saw-miU, owned by T. W. Shavelear & John Franklin. Milford Mill, about
two miles east, owned by Horace W^right, has a cider mill in connection, and
both do an extensive business. There are also three general stores, one shoe-
maker, one harness-maker, one tailor, one painter, one carpenter, two black-
smiths, two millwrights, and one hotel Squire Thomson, who came into the
township in 1821, carried on the first blacksmith shop in the village some sixty
years ago. At that time there existed a grist-mill, Finlay & John Malcolm
proprietors, a saw-mill, owned also by F. & J. ^Malcolm, and at Milford were
a grist-mill and saw-mill, both carried on by J. Lodor, as well as a carding mill,
run by Henry Gates.
The two churches in Oakland Village are the Methodist Episcopal, which
was first organized about the year 1834, the building itself having
been erected in 1849. It is of framework, and capable of seating three
hundred and fifty. Among the earliest pastors of this church were the Revs.
Francis Bird, William Bird, Zachariah Taylor, D. Griffin, and Salsbury.
Moses Baldwin was the first class-leader, and among the earliest members
were Moses Baldwin, Mr. and Mrs. Mordecai Westbrook, Mr. and Mrs. John
Malcolm, Mr. and Mrs. James Baily, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Barnes. The
present officers are: the Rev. Thomas Athloe, preacher in charge; Byron Laing,
assistant ; George Bradshaw, M H. Baldwin, Thomas Mills, Mordecai West-
brook, Williaim Waugh, William McEwan and Hamilton Burtch, Trustees.
The Canadian Methodist is also a frame building, erected in 1857, at a cost
of about $1,200. It has a seating capacity of 350, with a membership of
nearly 100. The pastorate is filled by supply. A little school house was built
in the village, shortly after the year 1823, in which was placed a sort of pulpit,
from which a Mr. Brining, Presbyterian clergyman, held forth to his flock on
the Sabbath. This reverend gentleman died some few years after above date, in
Mount Pleasant, Brantford Township. The first school teacher is said to have
been a Mr. Gough, and thi» school is by some supposed to have been the
first in the township, although one may have existed in Scotland Village at
about the same period. In 1835 the first Baptist Church was organized in
Oakland Village, with the Rev. Mr. Harris as pastor. The congregation met
n a school house a little tQ«}^he east of the village. This denomination, about
the year 1847, again formed themselves into a body for public worship, with
408 HISTORY OF BRilNT COUNTY.
the Bev. Mr. Babcock as pastor, but they finally merged into the organization
formed at Scotland Village.
The old cemetery in the village has been in use since the first settlement of
the township, and is the only one, save perhaps ^ Fairchild's burying-gromid,''
now closed, which is a little further north. Full many a weather-worn tablet
in this city of the dead marks the spot where
'* The rade forefathen of the hamlet sleep."
Eebeixion in 1837.
Complaints, as early as the beginning of this century, regarding the working
of the Constitutional Act of 1791, had been from time to time, and like the low
threatening murmurings of a pent-up volcano, giving voice to a spirit of
unqualified dissatisfaction, which ultimately culminated in the so-called '' Be-
bellion of 1837." This same Act of 1791 sought to provide for the maintenance
of a Protestant clergy of both Upper and Lower Canada, by setting apart a
large extent of wild lands, consisting of two million five hundred thousand
acres. This was known as the " Clergy Seserves," and against such act of legis-
lation three objections were raised, principal of which were, that the Executive
Council interpreted the spirit of the Act to mean that these lands should be for
the support of the Church of England only, and that the manner in which the
reserves were selected — they being surveyed from every seventh lot — prevented
the formation of connected settlements, necessary for making and keeping
roads in repair. Another source of complaint was the Government retaining
what were called " Crown Lands ;" and yet another, the " Family Compact," a
monopolizing institution that gave all the chief offices of Government to the
members of a few families in each Province. These then, and other abuses of
the people's rights, precipitated the Rebellion, in which William Lyon Mac-
kenzie may be said to have been the prime motor in Upper Canada, and Louis
Papineau and Dr. Wolfred Nelson in Lower Canada. This spirit of discontent
permeated almost every every comer of the Province, and in no place did it
take deeper root than in the Township of Oakland, particularly the southern
portion of it Previous to 1837 several public meetings were called at Oak-
land Village, for the purpose of entering a protest, and expressing a determi-
nation to pay no taxes until such time as existing grievances should be
redresssed. Squire Thomson, it is related, was the onlv one to oppose the mea-
sures brought before the first meeting, which was, at nis request, adjourned for
one week. At the second meeting John Malcolm and Asa Secord were enlisted
over to the side of Squire Thomson, and still a further adjournment was
obtained. Shortly afterwards, however, a gathering was held'in Scotland Vil-
lage, of from two to three hundred raw recruits, fully officered and equipped
for a campaign, and an advance on, and if possible capture of, the Town of
Brantford. On learning of the disastrous termination of Mackenzie's action at
Montgomery's Farm, near Toronto, and being made acquainted with the fact
that militia was approaching, the Scotland patriots quietly dispersed This
insurrection may have been a disloyal and illegal act, but it had the virtue of
proving to the Government that the rights of the people were not to be trampled
on with impunity, and that the end justified the means, for the causes of all
this contention were ultimately removed.
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 409
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP.
Bt Jomr BoroHAX, SnriL, Ebq.
To write the history of a single township may to some appear a matter of
small moment, while others woald consider a record of the local events of
the past very desirable. How are the many legends, names and memories
which enshrine the deeds of our pioneer settlers and friends to be preserved
but in such a history ? Who is there that would not be pleased to look upon,
or have his children examine, the pages of a book in which are recorded the
events of his early days and the cherished associations of departed friends ?
And how should strangers settling in a township so readily obtain a knowledge
of its aifairs as through the medium of such local publication ? Many historical
facts of vital importance to our people are now living only in the memories of
a few of our early settlers who are fast nearing the evening of life, whose race
will soon be run; and after they have passed from among us, these facts will be
buried in the oblivion of the past unless rescued now by the pages of history.
The object, therefore, of the following pages is to preser\'e for the people of
Onpndaga Township a lasting record of these facts ; and although the full
importance of the step may not be realized by the most advanced in years of
the present generation, their children and their children's children will yet
fully appreciate the value of this work, which alone retains for them an account
of the customs and early days of their ancestors, and the country they reclaimed
from its primeval wilderness, over which the untamed Indian had for ages
held dominion.
The Indians.
It is by many supposed that the first actual owners of the lands now form-
ing the Township of Onondaga were the Six Nation Indians, and if common
justice had been done them such surmise would have been correct The facts
are, that at the dose of the Revolutionary War an arrangement was entered
into between the Mohawk Indians and the British Government by which the
latter should have assigned to them a tract of land on the Grand Biver (then
called the Ouse), comprehending six miles on either side of the stream from
the mouth to the source. This tract, which contains some of the most fertile
land in the Province, was formally conveyed to them by an instrument under
Governor Haldimand's hand and seal, in which it was stipulated that they
^ould " possess and enjoy " it forever. The Indians, unversea in technicalities,
supposed they had an absolute and indefeasible estate in the lands, but they
were sadly mistaken. Governor Haldimand's convevance did not pass the fee,
which could only be effected by a Crown patent imder the Great Seal It was
a great wrong to thus impose upon the too credulous Indian, and a poor reward
410 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
for their loyalty and fidelity to the British Crown in the momentous events
which preceded ; and it was not long in working its own evils, as succeeding
events in this chapter will demonstrate.
It probably would not be amiss to relate here, that in the year 1833, the
Reservation was visited by Sir John Colbome, the Governor of Upper Canada,
with the design of having a conference with the Indians. He was accompanied
by Lady Colbome, his two sons and an A. D. C. The party were the guests of
the Rev. Canon Nelles, of the Tuscarora Mission, and stayed with him over
two nights. They came via Ancaster Village on horseback, having only the
Indian trail to guide them through the wilderness. While here Governor
Colborne called the chiefs of the Indians together, and held a councU with
them concerning their spiritual 'as well as temporal welfare, and on leaving
presented them with $200 to assist them in erecting a saw-mill, of which more
will be said hereafter.
Onondaga Township took its name from the Onondaga tribe of the Six
Nations, their principal settlement being in the eastern part of the township.
Other tribes were located in various parts of the township and on its borders,
among whom were the Oneidas. In the north-western end there was a settle-
ment known as the Upper Cayugas, which extended into Brantford Township
at Cainsville, where they had a village and burial place. The Mohawks were
located in the River Bend, where they had some well tilled farms. Here the
Wesleyan Methodists established a Mission Church and school in 1822, under
the superintendence of Rev, Alvin Torrey. Along the banks of Fairchild's
Creek, on the farms of Joseph Charlton and John Hartley, are the remains of
what was known as the Kick's Settlement. It was located on the old Whiting
and River Roads, where to-day can be seen the remains of some old orchards,
and several chimney-places which belonged to their dwellings. An Indian
burying-ground was also in the immediate vicinity. The territory between
the mouth of Fairchild*s Creek and Middleport was occupied principally by
the Tuscaroras. A Mission Church and school was established by the Church
of England about a mile below Onondaga Village, under the charge of Rev.
Robert Luggar, about 1827 or 1828, and was uniformly maintained until about
five years ago, when it was closed. The Onondagas were located further down
the river, their settlement extending a mile below the Village of Caledonia,
Haldimand County. They were chiefly pagan. The New England Company
built a school house for them a little below the county line, but the pagan was
too deeply inherent in the breast of the dusky dweller of the forest for either
education or Christianity to obtain a foothold, and the school was comparatively
a failure. These pagans had a place of worship on the Hagar farm, Middleport,
where they were wont to indulge their peculiar customs. It was many years
ago removed to the opposite side of the river, where every season after harvest
may be seen the remains of their barbarous festival.
The Six Nations formerly held their councils in this township, in a building
called the " Long House," until the surrender of that part of the reservation :
it was located on the farm now owned and occupied by Mrs. Mary Dee, daugh-
ter of Peter Smith, a prominent Indian in his day, and wife of F. O. Dee, near
Middleport. Subsequently they for some time held their councils in a hall at
Middleport, until a proper. edifice for that purpose was built in the Tuscarora
Reservation.
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 411
The region along the Grand River shows indkations of having been long the
home of Sie Indian. Belies of great antiquity are frequently found on the
reservation, and on various farms in the township. They comprise mainly old
pipes, pottery and arrow-heads, many of which are in the possession of residents
Ke townatip.
For a period of about ten yeai's prior to 1841, the Indians experienced the
fall force of the iniquities the defective title to the lands they occupied
entailed. When the whites began to encroach upon their domain, the Indians
attempted to lease or sell the land to them, supposing their title to be absolute.
But to this proceeding the Government objected upon the ground that the
Crown had a pre-emptive right, and that the land belonged to the Indians only
so long as they might choose to occupy it. This shameful state of affairs was
not long in creeping through the brain of the deluded Indians ; they at once
saw their helplessness, and the only way out of their difficulties with the white
settlers was to surrender the territory to the Government, which they did on
the 18th of January, 1841. They then retired across the river to the Tuscarora
Beservation, reserving, however, 1,700 acres in this township, of which mention
is made elsewhere in tliis chapter.
Description of the Township.
Although the settlement of the County of Brant dates back to the end of the
eighteenth century, it was not until the exciting times of 1836 and 1837 that
white people began to migrate to Onondaga Township. Previous to that period
the township formed a portion of the Indian Beservation in the then Gore Dis-
trict. It is therefore the youngest member of the group of townships now
forming tha County of Brant, and its history is easily reached without research-
ing beyond the elders of the present generation, some of whom were among the
earliest settlers. With the exception of Oakland, it is the smallest township in
the county, containing 22,282 acres of excellent farming land ; the principal
topographical feature being high and rolling. It is drained by Big, Little and
Fairchild's Creeks, which intersect the township at various points, and crossing
in a south-easterly direction, empty into the Grand Biver» which courses along
the whole length of the township from west to east The soil varies, but is
principally clay interspersed, especially in the locality commonly known as the
" Big Bend," on the Grand Biver, and along Fairchild's Creek, with a rich sandy
loam. The quality of the soil is excellent, well adapted for raising all the
staple cereals, more particularly wheat, and despite its paucity of years, is
destined to make some of the finest farms in the countv. The boundary lines
of Onondaga are, on the east, Seneca Township, Haldimand County ; north-
east, Ancaster, Wentworth County ; north, East Brantf ord ; and west and
south, the Grand Biver. The township is given a very picturesque appear-
ance by the presence of the Grand Biver and the streams which flow into it,
and the rolling and hilly quality of the land is attributable to the same. Along
the river front the township is irregularly shaped, as is also the line dividing it
from East Brantford, while the boundary hues between the township and
Ancaster and Seneca are straight. The length of Onondaga is about thirteen
miles, with an average breadth of about six miles. At a point near the Village
412 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
of Onondaga, in a straight line to East Brantford, the township is only about
two miles in width.
Earlt Settlement.
Settlers began to arrive in the eastern part of the township, near the Seneca
line, and took up land under what was then known as Indian or squatter's
rights. They at first met vdth considerable opposition from the Indians and
their friends, aided and abetted by some of the authorities whose zeal was too
much for their better judgment Many of the so-called squatters were fined,
some as high as thirty dollars ; but, undaunted by these difficulties, setUeis
began to pour into the township in such numbers, that the Grovemment con-
sidered it best in 1840 to make a treaty with the Indians for the surrender of
all the lands comprised in the township, after which they had surveys made,
and opened the territory for actual settlement The claims of the whites were
allowed, and the Township of Onondaga erected into a municipality. In a
remarkably short time every lot was either purchased or occupied by white
settlers, except seventeen lots along the river between the Village of Ononds^
and Middleport. These lots were held in reservation for the Indians, and are
calculated to comprise 1,700 acres. There are only five Indian families now
residing on the lots in question, the remainder being occupied by white people
as tenants.
The first actual settlers to arrive were David Jones and his father, in 1836.
They located near the Haldimand County line, and were followed immediately
by Joseph Brown, who settled on the river front, and opened the first tavern in
the township. In the following year came George and Thomas Brown, William
Lamb and John Urie. The former is still living, and the latter, who was the
father of Mr. John Urie, now residing on the original homestead, is dead. His
aged widow is yet living on the home farm. James Ferris, John Patterson and
Mr. Quinn came next, and located on the river front, and the same year, 1837,
James Chapman and Thos. Conboy, Senr., settled some distance inland. About
a year subsequent to the advent of settlers in the east, they began to flock into
the western part of the township ; and among the earliest arrivals was Arthur
Smith, who settled on Lots 3 and 4, river ranga John Dickinson, another
pioneer settler, located in the " River Bend," near the Salt Springs Church.
William BurreU was also early in the township. He, as well as Mr. Dickinson,
came from England and took up the farm on which his sons are now residing.
He was a practical farmer, and soon made his farm first-class in every detaU.
His family have the well-deserved reputation of being excellent stock-raiseis>
and in this respect have set an example which has been extensively followed
by his neighbours. The River Bend is noted for the fine quality of its farms
and the superiority of its farmers as stock-raisers, chief among whom are the
Hamiltons, Barracloughs, Birketts and Stocks.
Having outlined the early settlement of both the eastern and western ends
of the township, we now come to the centre, wherein the early arrivals were two
brothers Howell, and Messrs. Burns, Dutton, Walker, James and Samuel
Simpson, Joseph Matthews and Thomas Baker. To these old settlers — ^the
fruits of whose labours we enjoy to-day, without thinking of the unremitting
toil, and in many instances great privations, it cost them to clear and improve
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 413
the land — may all praise be given. They had many difficulties to contend with
but in the few years that have since elapsed they have made " the wilderness
to blossom as the rose/' and left behind them comfortable homesteads for the
rising generation. James Simpson is the only one of them now living. Follow-
ing dosely in the wake of the more adventurous spirits, there came such a
rush of settlers that it is at this day impossible to individualize ; but 1837 and
1838 marked the date of the most considerable influx of the early pioneers.
Indian Troubles.
Before thus briefly disposing of the first settlers, mention should be made of
the late John Solomon Hagar, who figured prominently in Onondaga Township
histoiy previous to the formation of Brant County. His experiences were of
a startling character, and of no little danger. He came in 1838, and located on
Lots 62 and 63, river range, at Middleport, having purchased his right from an
Indian. It so happened that the identical property thus obtained had formerly
been in the possession of the pagan Indians, and a portion had been made sacred
from the practice of holding on it their annual feasts and ceremonies, and when
these Indians discovered the land occupied by a white man, they became
furious. Failing to frighten Mr. Hagar, and thus induce him to relinquish
possession of his hol(fing, they attempted to drive him from it, and not
succeeding, resorted to violence and outrage. His family fled for their lives
down the river in a canoe to his father-in-law's house, but the plucky pioneer
remained to brave the storm. He was assaulted, seriously handled, and left for
dead by his infuriated foes, but the latter failed to dislodge him, for we find
that he subsequently obtained his patent — the first title in fee simple in the
township — from the Government Mr. Hagar entered an action at law against
the Six Nations for damages sustained at their hands, Und obtained a judgment.
He was never afterwards molested by the Indians, with whom he lived on
terms of peace and amity to the day of his death.
The Lumberman.
Always in the van of early settlement will be found the lumberman, and the
first to commence operations was, we believe, James Little, who owned and
operated a saw-mill at Caledonia. He got out mostly saw logs, which he
floated down the river to his mill, but he subsequently completed and operated
a mill which was partly erected by the Tuscarora Indians in 1833, and thus
became the pioneer mill-owner in the township. Eonald McKinnon, another
mill-owner at Caledonia, was next in the field, or rather forest, and also took
large quantities of logs, representing at the present day enormous value, out of
the township, which he manufactured into lumber at his mill in Caledonia. In
the square oak and other timber for foreign markets, one Britton, from Kingston,
Peter McKerricher, from Lower Canada, and Charles Smith, of Cape Vincent,
were the principal operators. McKerricher went more extensively into the
business, and continued long after the lands were purchased by the settlers.
Prior to the lands being sold the Government granted licenses, for a stipu-
lated sum, to the lumbermen, and applied the proceeds to the Indian Funds,
414 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
but afterwards the operators paid " stumpage " to the settlers for permiasLon
to cut timber. The towndhip was stripped of all its best timber by theie
spoilers, and as none but the oest and cleanest pine and oak were taken, laige
quantities of what would be to-day valuable timber was left to dty, decay or be
burned by the farmers.
Early Buildings.
It seems,in the natural course of events, that immediately in the track of the
earliest pioneer comes the dispenser of hospitality and — whiskey. There had
scarcely been a score of settlers in the township when a tavern was erected on
the Biver Boad, at the conference of Big tireek and the Grand Biver. It was a
small log building, kept by Joseph Brown, and later on by members of bis
family. The original edifice can still be seen as you pass along the Biver Boad.
As appears to be the case in all new settlements, the drinking custom has many
votaries, and he who deals in the liquid that not only cheers but inebriate
generally sustains a hearty support from the hardy pioneer. Onondaga was
no exception to the rule, for we find that even in its earliest youth there was no
lack of taverns within its borders. A short distance west of Brown's was
another tavern. It was also a log building, built in 1838 by George May,
chiefly to accommodate the lumbermen, and here it was that the first township
meetings were held. The old building still stands on the farm now owned by
Samuel Ferris. Another hostelry was established further up the Biver Boao,
at what is now the Village of Middleport, by Charles Baldwin. It became a
favourite resort for the Indians and lumbermen, and in it a flourishing traffic
was carried on. Near Onondaga Village was another house of ^public enter-
tainment, where liquors were dealt out for an equivalent in current coin or
produce. About the year 1845 David Smith embarked in the grocery busi-
ness in Onondaga Village. Ue likewise kept, as an adjunct to his business, a
liquor saloon, with a bowling alley attached, and drove a thriving trade. In
the year 1838 Captain Murray opened a general store in the neighbourhood of
May's tavern, Biver Boad. When Captain Murray arrived at the location of
his business operations, there was of course no building in which to store his
merchandise, and he promptly organized one of those festive occasions in
which the settler delights, known as a " bee,'' and in a single day his shop was
erected — a performance in those days which is well worthy of note. At
Middleport Arthur Smith had a general store, which for a time was under the
management of George Yonell, who subsequently became the proprietor, and
about 1845 Bobert Soules opened a similar store at Onondaga, where he also
built a grain warehouse on the river bank. The latter af terweuxls received the
appointment of Postmaster of Onondaga.
Organization of the Township.
Prior to 1851 Onondaga Township belonged to the County of Wentworth,
then a portion of the old Gore District, and until 1842 it had not even the form
of a municipal government. The settlers were without roads, using only Indian
trails, and were obliged to drag their flour into the settlements on sledges, or
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 415
caiTj it on their backs from the nearest grist-mill, distant from seven to ten
miles. Bat this state of affairs was not permitted to continue long. On the
first Monday in January, 1842, at a meeting held at May's tavern, Peter
McKerricher was chosen to represent the township at the County Coimcil,
which held its sittings at Hamilton ; pathmasters, assessor and collector were
appointed, and a semblance of municipal organization established. Thomas
Conboy, Senr., Esq., was the assessor, and Frank Walker, Senr., the collector,
selected at this meeting. Mr. McKerricher continued to represent the township
for, we believe, four years, when he was succeeded by George May, who two
years later was in turn succeeded by John Solomon Hagar. The latter con-
tinued in office until municipal institutions were established, and Onondaga
Township merged into the County of Brant.
The new order of events in the destinies of this township took place in 1853,
when the first Township Council was elected. The municipality was then
called the '' United Townships of Onondaga and Tuscarora ;" but so soon as the
Indian Land Beservation was definitely settled, it lapsed into Onondaga Town-
ship only. The names of the first Councillors were : Greorge Yonell, W. N,
Alger, George May, Peter McKerricher and William Oliver. Mr. Yonell was
chosen Beeve, which at that period was done by the Council at their .first meet-
ing. The present custom of electing the Beeve by popular vote was adopted at
a more modem era. We find among the rules that were made for the guidance
of the first Council of this township, one which commands '^ that no Councillor
shall speak disrespectfully of the Queen or any of the Boyal Family, or person
administering the government of this Province ; nor shall he use unmannerly
or indecent language against the proceedings of this Council, or against par-
ticular Councillors," &c.
The township will now compare favourably with any in the march of pro-
gress and agricultural resources. The wilderness has given place to smiling
fields, and what a few short years ago was a dense forest, peopled only by wild
animals and Indians, now contains a numerous population, excellent farms,
fertile meadows, and splendid homesteads. Its finances are well managed, its
public buildings are excellent, its schools and churches flourishing, and its
people prosperous and contented.
In 1840 the first census was taken by Thomas Conboy, Senr., Esq. The
number of white people were at that date 150. In 1850 the census returns
showed a population of 1,657 ; in 1861, there were 2,066 ; in 1871, 1,924 ; and
in 1881, 1,739. We have been unable to discover the causes of the decrease
from 1861, but presume they are susceptible of satisfactory explanation.
Courts and Officials.
In 1853, upon the establishing of municipal institutions, the appointment
of Magistrates or Justices of the Peace was made in the presence of Thomas
Conboy, Sr., and Abraham Hawley. The next appointment was in 1857, when
the foUowing gentlemen were made J.P.'s : Thomas Armour, Samuel Nevius,
Eichard Henisman, James Graham, and Matthew Whiting. Following these,
in 1879 John Hamilton, James Grant, William Dixon, Samuel Simpson,
William Walker, Benjamin Squires and Thomas Oliver, were thus honoured.
416 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The following are the names of the Councillors for this municipality for the
present year : Alexander Douglas, Esq., Reeve, and John Baradough, John
Hamilton, J.P., Frederick Dixon, and Joseph Painter, Councillors. The Council
sits alternately at Onondaga Village and Middleport
The following are the present township officers: S. J. McKelvey, Clerk;
John Henderson, Treasurer ; Bradshaw McMurray, Assessor ; and James Graham,
Collector.
On the organization of the county, Stephen James Jones, Esq., of the City
of Hamilton, then a barrister in the office of S. B. Freeman, Esq., Q.C., was
appointed Judge of the County Court of Brant, and in 1853 established the
▼arious Division Courts of the County, that for this township being Xo.
6, and he appointed Thomas Butler, Clerk, and EUsha B. Huffman, BaiU£
They resigned in 1855, and Wm. McGruer was appointed Clerk, and John W.
Butler, Bailiff, in their stead. On the 26th S^tember, 1856, Robert Wade was
Clerk, and James Spencer, Bailiff; 1857, Wm. H. McKinney, Bailiff; 1858,
Nathaniel Marlatt, Bailiff, who continued till 1865. On July 20th, 1863, upon
the death of Bobert Wade, Matthew Whiting, Elsq., was appointed Clerk, and
1865, John Schofield, received the appointment of Bailiff. In 1870, Matthew
Whiting resigned, and W. S. Buckwell was appointed in his stead, with H.
H. VanSickle as Bailiff. Mr. Schofield left the county, H. H. VanSickle;
resigned the same year, and Matthew Day, the present Bailiff, succeeded Imn.
Mr. Buckwell was removed in 1874, and was succeeded by John Henderson,
who still holds the office. In 1 880, when the Provincial Grovemment assumed
the privilege of appointing clerks and bailiffs under the Division Court Act,
Messrs. Henderson and Day were confirmed in their official positions.
Schools and School Houses.
The first school house built within the limits of this township was an old-
fashioned log edifice, situated on the farm of Henry Gilmore, Lot 24, 2nd con«
Its first teacher was William Shannon, ^rho remained a short time, and was
succeeded by Terrence Jonea The latter now resides in Brantford. Within a
few years after it was built it was burned, and another seat of learning was
erected on Lot 70, river range, which is still used for this purpose. For a few
years after settlement began in the township there was a great want of the
means of education. The inhabitants being obliged to hire their teachers, and
the country being new, they felt unable to take that interest in the education
of their children they would have done had they been better circumstanced, or
had they been blessed at that time with our present excellent school system.
Any further reference to the early disadvantc^es of schooling seems unneces-
sary, but, for the information of the reader, it may be well to ^r that even very
good teachers in those days were willing to accept a sa^ ^H|lve dollars a
month and board round among the people, the amount ^gulated *
by the number of pupils each family sent to school. now are
our facilities for schooling. There are now in this to^ sections
and three excellent school houses, the one in the Villi >u'
1874, being an ornament to any township. It cost so;
sand dollars, and is capable of seating fully two hundr '
. BURRELL
PL'
rr.
*«jr
^^ UBRXRy
laoir?:^
fr
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 419
a fine house and well kept school in the western part of the township on Lot
14, river range, section No. 6, which has produced some good scholars ; and
another good school house situated on the farm of Robert Mulligan, Lot 19,
2nd concession, section No. 3, has also turned out some excellent scholars. In
school section No. 2, there is an efficient school kept in a building erected some
years ago, being in close proximity to the Village of Middleport ; the attend-
ance is large, the teachers are well selected, and the advancement of the pupils
rapid. The building first erected for a school house in section No. 4 is still
used for school purposes, and the number of pupils in attendance not being
numerous, the school is generally taught by a young lady. Some veiy efficient
graduates of this school enter upon the duties of after life. The school in
section No. 1 is a Union School, and is situated on the Seneca side of the
township line. It has the reputation of being under excellent management.
Mills and Miluno Intebests.
The first mill in this township was a saw-mill erected on Lot 11, in the 2nd
concession, having been commenced in 1834 by the Indians, who built a dam
on Big Creek and erected a frame for the mill ; but although they received aid
from Governor Sir John Colbome to the extent of two hundred doUars, they
were unable to complete it. James Little subsequently obtained possession of
the mill, put it in operation about the year 1838, and after working it at a
loss for some time, removed the machinery and abandoned the building.
Bichard Harris, Esq., now owns the farm on which this old mill formerly
stood, where traces of the dam are still to be seen. The next mill, also a saw-
mill, was built on Fairchild's Creek by the late Bev. Hamilton Biggar and
William Howell, Esq., on the farm now owned by William Howell, son of the
latter. It was erected in the year 1839, has since been rebuilt, and is still
running. It has undergone but little if any modem improvements. This
mill is a water-power and has a Muley saw, with an average capacity of about
50,000 feet of lumber per month. It might be well here to remark that as the
supply of timber is becoming exhausted, this would be a capital site for a
manufactory requiring an excellent water-power. A saw-miU erected in the
rear of Middleport on Big Creek, and called " Glen Aim," has been three times
rebuilt When first put up it was a water-mill, erected about the year 1841 or
1842, and after being in use for a short time was changed to steam power,
there not being at that time sufficient water-power to manufacture lumber
with any degree of profit. It has since been again converted into a water-
milL This mill was originally built by Qeorge Yonell, as was also the present
Glen Aim Mill, which Mr. Tonell sold to James M. Arthur, who operated it f o r
a number of years, when John Logan purchased, and owns it at the present
time. The timber in its immediate neighbourhood is getting scarce, and its
removal is contemplated in a short time. There were also two steam saw-mills
in Onondaga YUlage (both having been burned down), one of which was erected
by John Merrill, and owned at the time of its destruction by Henry Fiye r.
These mills were never rebuilt. A steam saw-mill was erected on the farm
of the late Joseph Mathews in the New England settlement some years ago by
Thomas Bigham. Afterwards this mill was owned by Henry Tardington, of
25
420 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Brantford, when it too was destroyed by fire, and was never rebailt. The only
saw-mills now existing in this township are Howell's and Logan's.
There were never more than two grist-mills in this township, and these were
run by steam-power. A mill was at first erected below the banks at the edge
of the Grand Biver in the Village of Onondaga. The building was calculated
when built for either a storehouse or factory, and was erected by John Merrill,
who sold it in 1868 to Benjamin Squires, who utilized it for milling purposes.
About twelve years ago he removed the machinery to a brick building, which
he greatly improved and converted into a grist-mill. The other building was
also erected for a factory, but was never used until utilized for its present par-
pose. Mr. Squires, realizing the value of his milling interest in the township,
went to a large expense in improving and refitting his new mill, and made it
not only a great benefit but an actual necessity to the township and the
community at large. This mill has three run of stones, two for fiouriug and
one for chopping grain for feeding purposes. The engine is a thirty horse-power,
and is capable of grinding five hundred bushels of wheat, and the same amount
of coarse grain for feed, per week. The mill is now owned and has been operated
for the last three years by Messrs. Dexter & Foulds.
Improved Stock.
<
Wm. Douglas has for some time been engaged in the business of raising
improved stock, each year adding to their improvement and increasing their
number and value. His animals generally are high bred Durhams and im-
proved Liecester sheep. There are others in the township who have improved
their stock, but have not gone extensively into the businesa
Ferries.
Owing to the Indian Reservation being on the south side of the Grand River,
there are no bridges in this township spanning that stream, consequently the
people have recourse to a system of ferries as a means of crossing. These
ferries are located at various points along the river, the boats or scows used
having greatly varied in the manner of their construction or means of propul-
sion since they were first established. Each ferry* is capable of carrjdng two
teams and vehicles, and is propelled by an endless chain, which is attached by
a windlass and crank to the boat and worked by hand. They are clumsy affairs
at best, and the wonder is that they answer their purpose as well as they appear
to do, or that they are a s^afe means by which to cross so wide and deep a
stream as the Qrand Kiver. Still there have been no accidents that have come
to our knowledge, and until some calamity or loss of life occurs, it is not cus-
^ tomary in these days to condemn such a system, however fraught with danger it
" may appear. The ferries, however, are a matter of necessity, if not of choice,
as the township is not able to keep up expensive bridges for the accommoda-
tion of those who reside upon or visit the reservation ; and thus far the ferries
have answered the purpose with tolerable satisfaction. Beginning at the west
end of the township, the first ferry is located at Newport, and is owned and
operated by Stephen Tomlinson. The second is the old Henderson Ferry, and
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 421
is operated by Wm. Hamilton, the owner. At Onondaga Village the third
feny crosses, (George fiatler owning and working it About midwaj between
Onondaga and Middleport is what xs known as the Waterford Road Ferry ; it
was established and run by James D. Spencer, of Onondaga Village, who subse-
quently sold it ; Samson Thomas now has the management of the ferry at this
point. The last ferry is at Middleport, and is under the skilful manipulation
of its owner, Oeorge Levine. The fare charged is a uniform rate of fifteen
cents for vehicles only. Pedestrians can cross only when there is a team on
board, there being no fare charged for them By this it will be seen that
anyone wishing to visit the reservation will find it a matter of economy to go
on foot. When the ice forms on the river* in winter the ferries are drawn out
It is much more convenient for teams to cross the river on the ice, consequently
it has not been found necessary to place these ferries on runners to be used as
iceboats.
Missions and Chukches.
During the year 1822, the Methodist Missionary Society of the Methodist
Church in Canada, seeing the necessity of looking to the spiritual welfare of
the Indians, conceived the idea of establishing an Indian Mission for the
Province, and appointed the Rev. Alvin Torrey as Missionary on the Grand
Biver. His field of labour extended from the mouth of the river to above
Brant's Ford, and he made one of his appointments at the Salt Springs in the
" River Bend." His labour having been successful, and having secured the con-
version and support of such Indian chiefs as James Givens, Jacob Isaac, John
Dockstader and others, the mission* became permanently established in this
county. A society was soon formed, with Chief Givens as the Indian class
leader. The next year, 1823, Mr. Torrey had as an assistant the Rev. Mr. Craw-
ford, and built a log structure which was used for school purposes as well as a
place of worship, until the year 1830, when what was known as the Salt Springs
Mission Church was built. The Indians did the principal work of getting out
the timber, framing and raising the building, supplies not on hand being fur-
nished from the funds of the Missionary Society. It is said, and believed to be
true, that the Rev. Wm. Ryerson was the first resident missionary at the
mission. The Indians gave about 64 acres of land, which was called the
Mission Lot, for the parsonage, and also partially maintained the resident
missionaiy. This lot is now owned by the son of the Rev. Mr. Ryerson, and
remains in the same peculiar shape it was when given by the Indiana The
church has attached to it an acre of land for a cemetery, which has been ex-
tensively utilized for burial purposes by Indians and white people. In the
year 1859 the Mettiodists began to make preparations to build a new church,
which they finished and dedicated to Divine worship in 1860, and which has
been used for that purpose ever since. The Indians have removed their mis-
sion to the reservation on the opposite side of the river, where thev have a
church at present under the pastoral char<;e of the Rev. Wm. Cross. The Salt
Springs Church is now attached to the CainsviUe Circuit. Its present pastors
are the Revs. Charles Stringfellow and J. Little, and the class reader is Miles
Birkett ; its Recording Steward being Wm. BurrelL This church has now a
membership of 25. There formerly was a larger membership, but deaths and
removals have been the principal cause of its decadence.
M
422 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
A Methodist Church was built on Lot 8, 2nd concession, now owned bj
Wm. Taws, but formerly by Henry Fryer, Esq., by whose instrumentality it
was erected ; but after a fine church was erected in the Village of Onondaga it
came into disuse, chiefly through the demise of the old members, and the young
members joining the Onondaga congregation.
There was a log church built on the farm of Geo. Lincoln, on the east side of
Fairchild's Creek, near the Howell Mill, a number of years ago, which was used
for many years as a place of worship. It also has been ab^indoned, its mem-
bers at present being united with the congregation at Onondaga Village. A
cemetery at the place where this church stood, owned by the Canada Methodist
Church, is still used as a burying-ground by people who formerly had their
fnends buried there.
The Methodist Church at Onondaga Village was erected during the years 1857
and 1858. It is a frame building erected at a cost of over Si ,225, principallj
by funds borrowed from the conference of the then Wesleyan Methodists in
Canada. On the 25th of February, 1857, a meeting was called at the house of
Henry Myers, Esq., for the purpose of forming a committee for the erection of
the church, at which it was " moved by Mr. Myers, and seconded by Thomas
Baker, that the following be a Committee for Building Arrangements, viz.: Henry
Myers, Sandford Whiting, George Whitefield Howell, David Sharp, Thos. Baker,
John Galbraith and Henry Fryer, with G. W. Howell as Secretary, and Heniy
Myers, Treasurer." It was then " moved by Mr. Myers, and seconded by John
Galbraith, that the church be 46 feet long and 32 feet in width.'* The Com-
mittee of Management authorized G. W. Howell to superintend the work
according to a plan furnished by David Leonard, architect, imd the building
was completed. In January, 1868, the church was freed from debt, and in
1876 the Rev. W. W. Shepherd conceived the idea of its removal from where
it foimerly stood to its present beautiful situation on the bank of the river,
the ground being given by Benjamin Squires, who took an active part in its
improvement and enlargement. The present structure is an excellent frame
church, well finished, and, together with the land and sheds, is valued at about
$3,000. The society is now free fi^m debt. Its present pastors are the Revs.
Charles Stringfellow and James Little ; class leader, Samuel Deagle ; Church
Steward, Wm. Howell. The members in connection number about 25, with a
considerable number of families as adherents. There is an excellent Sabbath
school in connection with the congregation, having about 35 pupils, under the
superintendence of Elijah Harrison.
The first Christian congregation of Indians which assembled under the
auspices of the Church of England in this township, was called together under
the pastoral charge of the Bev. Robert Luggar, who resided at Brantford in
the year 1828, and was visited occasionally by Mr. Luggar, until the year
1829, when the Rev. Abram Nelles assumed the chai^ of the Tuscarora Mission.
The Reverend (now Archdeacon) A. Nelles lived for some years on one of the
New England Company's mission lots lying between Onondaga and Middleport,
where was erected by that company a log school house, with a rectory attached,
for the accommodation of the resident missionary and teacher. Services were
tor the time held in this school house, and continued until the year 1837, when
the present church was built. When the church was commenced the Indians
ONONDAQA TOWNSHIP. 423
aided with willingness, and some being clever workmen, the edifice was soon
oompletecL The New England Company furnished what funds and material
the TnrliRna could not procoTC themselves. The chlirch was completed in 1837,
and about this time Mr. Nelles was stationed at the Mohawk Mission, residing
at Brantford. This reverend gentleman, who is now an archdeacon, has for
fifty years laboured as chief missionary to the Six Nation Indiansj, but is now
resting from a life of j^food works in the cause of Christianity, and is still living
in Brantford, hale and heartv, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was
succeeded at the Tuscarora Mission Church by the Rev. Adam Elliott, who
remained until his death, which occurred June 3rd, 1878. The church was
then closed, the Indians having all allied themselves to congregations on the
Toscarora side of the river. For some time previous to his death, the Rev. Mr.
Elliott, who had been in failing health, had associated with him the Rev. Albert
Anthony, a native Indian of the Delaware tribe, who is now pastor of the
lower Mohawk Church in Tuscarora Township. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott will
always be held in grateful remembrance by the people of this locality for their
many acts of benevolence and charity, as neither could feel satisfied with
seeing the needy unsupplied Mrs. Elliott is still living, and her house is the
home of charity and benevolence, her labours even extending outside of the
mission. She is the main support of her husband's church at Middleport,
having liberaUy aided in its completion and subsequent adornment There is
a burial place in the grounds of the Tuscarora Mission Church in which a great
many Indians have found a sepulchre. It is still extensively used.
Holy Trinity Church, Onondaga, a Gothic structure of red brick, was built
in 1857, and has since had added to it a beautiful tower and belL This church
has a cemetery in connection with it, and is free from debt. In the chancel of
this church a beautiful stained glass memorial window, the gift of the late Rev.
Adam Elliott, has been placed, in loving remembrance of his children. The
site for Trinity Chnrch was given by Chief Geo. H. M. Johnson, and David
Leonard had the contract for its erection. The Building Committee were
Revs. Abram Nelles and Adam Elliott, Dr. Dee, and Messrs. Richard Herds-
man, Robt Griffith and W. S. BuckwelL The Rev. Frederick Grant was the
first incumbent of the pastorate. After the building of the tower for the bell,
the church was consecrated in 1876, and the society is still free from debt. Its
present pastor is the Rev. John Ridley, and in connection there are about
twenty-four families, numbering one hundred and twenty people, including
fifty enrolled communicants. Walter Schofield and George Simpson are Church-
wardens.
St. Paul's Church, Middleport, was erected during the year 186b, an an
eligible plot of ground, the gift of Robert Wade, Esq. It is a neat frame
building with tower and bell, its value being $1,500. The society is free from
debt. There is a beautiful cemetery attached to this church, in which stands
a handsome monument, erected to the memory of its patron, Robert Wade.
The beautiful memorial window in the chancel was the joint gift of Robert
Racey and Rev. Adam Elliott It was erected in memory of the Litter's nephew
and niece. The side and north windows were the gift of Mr. Cooper, of the
Village of Mount Pleasant In connection with this church there are about
twenty famUies, numbering nearly ninety-five people, including forty enrolled
424 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
communicants. The present incumbent of the pastorate is the Bev. John
Ridley. The Church-wardens are Richard Cockretl and Adam Mitchell.
A short time after the township was first settled, the Rev. B. Hill, a Church
of England missionary on the Grand River, found ihe need of religious services
in the settlement, and preached to the people in their private dwellings.
People of all denominations flocked to hear him, so anxious were they to hear
the Gospel expounded. Mr. Hill was, it is believed, the first minister who
preached to the settlers of this township.
As there were a number of Presbyterians in the lower end of the township,
the Rev. Dr. Ferrier, of Caledonia, held services in the people's houses ; he was
the second minister in the township.
Before the Indians all removed from this township, the Rev. W. H. Landon,
a minister of the regular Baptist Church, came to the Grand River for the
purpose of establishing a mission among the Indians, and also to secure a home
for himself. He settled on Lot 52, river range, and built a house in which he
resided for several years, at the same time labouring for the spiritual welfare
of the Indians on both sides of the river. He appears to have been very
successful, for we find such men as Revs. B. H. Carrier, Jas. N. Cusick, Joseph
Longfish, and Seth Claus, all native Indians, as the fruits of his labour. Elder
Landon commenced his mission labours about 1843 or 1844, and therefore lays
claim to being the first to form a Baptist Church in this township. The farm
on which he settled was resurrendered to the Indians, and is now owned and
occupied by Isaac Davis, an Indian.
The First Baptist Church, Onondaga^ was organized in the year 1855, through
the instrumentality of Jas. L Davidson, D.D., and a preliminary meeting was
held for that purpose on the 6th of April (Good Friday) of the same year.
Rev. Job Moxom, of Binbrook, opened the proceedings with prayer, and was
followed by the Rev. Dr. Davidson, of Brantford. There were present at
this meeting Revs. Joseph Painter and Benjamin H. Carrier, Thomas Chave,
Martha Painter. Elizabeth Carrier, Elizabeth Chave, and Hannah Lindsay.
The visiting brethren were Rev. Anthony Scott, agent of the Baptist Missionary
Society of Canada, and Thomas Bigham, of Binbrook. Elder Benjamin EL
Carrier was appointed Clerk. At a meeting held in the village school house
on the next day, Samuel Simpson, Caroline Simpson, Richard Southwell^
Catharine Southwell, Sarah A. Mitchell, Elizabeth Eirkby, Susan Mattice,
Ellen Labin and Sarah Painter, presented themselves for the ordinance of
baptism, and on the following day were baptized bv the Rev. Dr. Davidson.
They were therefore the first new members after tne church was organized.
The society numbered at that time sixteen members. After the oiganization
of the church Rev. R H. Carrier was called to be its pastor (1855), continuing
to occupy that position until the vear 1857, when he removed to Tuscarora.
The regular meetings of the church were held in the school house until 1858,
when a chapel was erected and dedicated to the worship of God by Revs. Joseph
Painter and B. H Carrier, as the First Baptist Church of Onondaga. Mrs.
Caroline Simpson and Sarah Painter, now the wife of Matthew Whiting, Esq.,
are the only persons living in this county who were among its first members.
The church has been since refitted and improved, wih commodious sheds
attached. It has the Rev. Nathaniel Richards for its present pastor, and a
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP. 425
membership of about sixt^ communicants. An excellent Sabbath school is
conducted in connection with the church.
The Second Baptist Church of Onondaga Township, before its reorganization,
was in connection and imder the superintendence of the regular Baptist Church
in Binbrook, Wentworth County, and prior to 1857 was visited by Elder Wm.
Hooper, who was then living in this township, Deacon Alfred Bingham, of
Glanford, and Rev. Job Moxom, of the Binbrook Church. They held meetings
at the residences of brethren, and also in the school house at the Mulligan
Settlement, converting many to Christ In 1854 Elder Hooper, having the
interest of his church at heart, succeeded in building a chapel for regular worship
on Lot 19, 1st concession, on the farm of William Mulligan, for which he after-
wards was paid by the members and friends of church enterprise. A meeting
was called on the 13th of June, 1857, for the organization of the society. In
July 1st of the same year it became an established church. There were,
previous to and at the time of this church organization in this township, the
following regular Baptist brethren and sisters : Elder Wm. Hooper, Christina
Hooper, Elizabeth Hooper, David Jones, Elizabeth Jones, John Hicks, Harriet
Hicks, Jane Boylan, Atin Elizabeth Creighton, Frederick Bicker, Eleanor
Bicker, Catharine Kicker, John Cowie, Isabella Cowie, Mary Hooper, John
Peddie (now the Rev. Dr. Peddie), John McConichie, Catherine Mulligan,
Margaret Mulligan, Richard Mulligan and Robert Mulligan, all of whom became
members of the Second Baptist Church after its reorganization, and with others
making a total membership at that time of fifty-seven communicants. Elder
Job Moxom was also largely instrumental in the formation of this society. Rev.
N. Richards is its present pastor, and the members of the church in good stand-
ing now number seventy-seven.
Elder William Hooper was born in England, and emigrated to this country
in 1838, and to this township in 1839. He resided a short time in Hamilton,
where he subsequently received his ordination. Mr. Hooper died in the town-
ship of Oneida, County Haldimand, on the 29th March, 1876, in the 74:th year
of his age, and in the triumph of bis faith, beloved by all for his good works.
He is buried in the cemetery attached to the church he was instrumental in
building.
John Peddie, one of the first members of the Second Baptist Church, was a
native of this township ; entered the ministry, and is now a Doctor of Divinity,
and has the pastorate of one of the most influential Baptist churches in New
York City.
The Methodist Episcopal denomination has erected in this township two
churches, one in Onondaga Village and a second at Middleport; as their
ministers are non-resident, and their records have not been reached, it is impos-
sible to give their adherents the history to which their position entitles them.
The church at Onondaga was erected a number of years ago, but we are unable
to give any information concerning its inception or ^progress owing to causes
above stated. It is a substantial frame building, capable of seating, we should
judge, about two hundred and fifty people.
The church at Middleport was built during the year 1864, principally by the
contributions of the members and friends of the connection. At the time the
church was built the Bevs. Messrs. Benson and Williamson were pastors, cuid
426 HISTOBT OF BRANT COUNTT.
took an active part in its erection, assisting in the work and doing the pai nting.
Their zeal in undertaking this church inspired the members to the work, and
materially reduced its cost to the society. Mr. Henry Minor, the class leader,
also took an active part in the formation and construction of the church, as well
as members of the Hagar family. The members then were Henry Minor and
wife, Silas Blanchard and wife, Dennis L. Dennis and wife, and Mr& Ellen
Deagle, wife of D. Deagle, deceased. At the present time Bev. O. 6. Colo-
mere is pastor ; Joseph Bresette and Charles Hagar, class leaders ; Jacob Poss,
Church Steward. There are twenty-seven members on its class book.
Villages.
Onondaga is the principal town of the township. About the year 1842,
when the lumbering enterprise was at its height in this township, David Smith
emigrated from Jerseyville, Wentworth County, and settled at the site of what
is now called the Village of Onondaga. He engaged in the grocery business,
and also kept a liquor store or saloon, where he dispensed his commodities to
the lumbermen and Indians. Not long after this, a log tavern was erected on
the farm now owned by Geo. Douglass, and in 1849, the late William Sooles
opened a general store, which was a decided acquisition to the place. In 1851
Mr. Soules was appointed Postmaster, and thus the second post office was
established in the township. The village had heretofore been known as Smith's
Comers, but on the opening of the post office the name was changed to Onon-
daga. About this time John Merrill erected a steam saw-mill in the village,
and shortly after another was erected at the mouth of Fairchild's Creek, both
of which were destroyed by fire a number of years ago. The mills were never
rebuilt, and the future prospects of the village sustained a severe blow in their
loss, together with the decadence of the lumbering interests throughout the town-
ship ; for upon these it was that the progress and development of Onondaga
mainly depended. The village never recovered from these disasters, and although
it still retains its early reputation for thrift and enterprise, it has not increased
to any appreciable extent for a number of years past. In 1857, Matthew
Whiting opened a general store, an enterprise which he carried on success-
fully for a number of years, but he subsequently sold out the business, and the
store is now in the hands of W. F. Buke. fl. H VanSickle also kept a well
stocked general store in the village, which is at present owned by the efficient
Postmistress, Mrs. W. S. Buckwell. Besides these, the village now contains
four churches — Canada Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Episcopal Methodist —
a fine brick school house, erected in 1874 ; a Township Hall, built of brick in
1875 at a cost of over $3,000 ; cabinet and joiner shop, two blacksmith shops,
carriage and waggon shop, two excellent hotels, and a steam grist-milL The
village being situated on a bend of the Grand Biver, a ferry is established here
for the convenience of those crossing to the Indian Beservation. The popula-
tion is 200. The Grand Trunk Bail way passes through the north end of the
village where the station is located. The Bufialo, Brantford and Groderich
Bailway Company, who projected and constructed the line, purchased five
acres of land for the station yard upon which it was intended to erect work-
shops, but they were never enabled to carry out their intentions. Bobert
Wallace is the present station agent, and is deservedly popular.
ONOyDAGA TOWNSHIP. 427
The ^^llage of Middleport is also situated on a slight bend of the river three
miles below Onondaga ; it was founded by John oolomon Hagar, of whom
mention is made elsewhere in this chapter. The next settler in the village of
whom we have any record was Charles Baldwin, who kept a grocery and liquor
saloon ; foUowing^him came Arthur Smith (who opened a leneral store prior
to 1845) and Greorse Tonell, who subsequently succeeded to the business. The
first tavern in the tillage w;a under the proprietorship of - Button, succeeded
by H. G. Riddell, and a second, kept by James Sheppard, eventually became
the property of Thomas Young. David Dennis was ako a popular Boniface in
the early days of Middleport, but his house, as well as those preceding it, was
in course of time destroyed by fire.
John W. Butler afterwards built a good hotel in the village, which has
always been well kept, and is popular with travellers and the public. He was
succeeded in the winter of 1882 by Samuel Arrell. Middleport is beautifully
situated on elevated ground,commandinga fine view of the river and surround-
ing country. It took its name from the circumstance of its location being
midway between ** the locks '' near Brantford and the Village of Caledonia.
In its palmy days it was an important port of the Grand River Navigation
Company's lock and river system. Large quantities of timber were shipped
from here, which gave the place a brisk, business-like appearance, but with
the decline of the Navigation Company's fortunes, and the exhaustion of the
timber in the vicinity, the prosperity of the village was checked. It still holds
its position, however, as a centre of trade for the farming community, and
contains two good general stores, two blacksmith shops, a waggon and carriage
shop, bakery, hotel, two churches — St. Paul's Episcopal and Episcopal Method-
ist—a pubuc hall, and about twenty dwellings, with a population of 100 souls.
The first post ofiice in the towuship was established here, and named Tus-
carora, with Bobert Wade Postmaster. The present Postmaster is S. J.
McKelvey, who is also Township Clerk. A ferry is located at this point, which
is extensively utilized by people who cross the river to and from the Indian
Seservation opposite. Middleport is a flag station on the Grand Trunk Kail-
way, which passes to the rear of the village, about three quarters of a mile
distant
Incidents and Casualties.
At the period when this township began to be settled, those who desired to
make a matrimonial alliance could, after procuring a license, have their wish
fulfilled by a clergyman ; but if no such person resided within a radius of twenty
miles of the domicile of either of the contracting parties, the contract could be
made by engaging the services of a Justice of the Peace. An incident illustra-
tive of the difficulties and hardships engendered by such a law is related of
one of our best pioneer families. The gentleman referred to, with his intended
bride and best man, in 1838 went on foot to the Town of Hamilton, a distance
of fourteen miles, to have their marriage performed by the " nearest clergy-
man," returning by the same means of conveyance. Such was the indomitable
spirit of our forefathers, that we are told they patiently submitted to the
ordeal, and were more genuinely happy over the event than are many of the
people of to-day who have no such hardships to undergo. How many beaux
418 mSTOBT OF BRANT COCNTT.
mad belles of the present day would andergo a like experieoce tor ttte sake of
wedded bliss! The hero of this pedestrian and matrimomal adventure lived in
the eastern part of the township, near the Seneca lina The hardships endnrod
by the early pioneers were legion, bnt we give only one by way of compariaon
with the conveniences and comforts enjoyed by the present generation. There
being no roads to the settlements, the only means of ingress and egress was
by i£e Indian trails through the forest ; and one of onr prominent citizens
relates that he has on several occasions carried a bushel of wheat on his back
to the Village of Seneca, seven miles distant, and returned with the product in
tbe same manner. He is still living on the identical homestead he reclaimed
from the " forest wild." Illustrating the ludicrous side of the early settler's
experiences, it is said that in the eastern part of the township, on an occa^on
when Divine service was being held in a school house, a sudden rush of wind
waAed out the light, which consisted of a single tallow candle. Conatemation
seized the assemblage, owing to the fact that matches were made in heaven
oqIt in those days, and there was apparently no means of relighting the
extinguished " glim." The ubiquitous smoker, however, was present, and he
Mine to their relief with his flint, steel and punk, and in a twinkling converted
darkness into light. In those primitive days there were no churches in which
to worship, consequently assemblages of the settlers and their families were
heM in sdiool houses and private dwellings.
Aceidents bv " flood ana fleld," but few in number, have come to our know-
ledge, but as these sad events will occur in the best regulated localities, we
!?i^'« such of them as we have received from authentic sources. Probably the
w*^t melancholy occurrence of the kind that ever took place in the township
v'as the drowning of Misa Ann B&ich, in January, 1843. The unfortunate
>XHanj' ImIv, who was a daughter of Geo. Baich, one of the pioneer settlers then
living on the Haldimand County line, aud sister of Mrs. John Urie, was twenty-
two j'VATs of age, and had only recently returned home from Hamilton, where
'm KikI for a time been living. She was engaged to be married in a short
tim«, Hnd her return home was preparatory bo that event, which added poign-
•nUv trt t.b» iMHtwiiui nf her death. It appears that she went out at night to
well near the house, and not returning after a lapse of
lade and her body discovered in the welL The well
e boxing, and it is surmised that in attempting to draw
1 w&s done by means of the old-fashicmed wooden hook,
lat had formed about the curb, and, losing her footing,
T death. The circumstances attending the sad event
hole community, in which the young lady was beloved
M»dent occurred in 1858, under the railway bridge
«k at Howell's Mill Pond. The victim of this melan-
l man named Hamilton. It appears that he, in com-
ther young men, went to the place mentioned to bathe,
ident has never been ascertained. He was not missed
i dressed and were on the point of leaving the spot,
loticed still lying on the bank of the stream. Search
is body found in the water under the bridge, but the
ONONDAGA TOWNSfflP. 429
vital spark had fled. The young man, who was respected by all his fellows,
was a brother of John and Boberi Hamilton, farmers, who still reside in the
township.
Still another accident of a similar nature occurred in 1871, about half a mile
further up the same stream, by which a young man named John Harrold lost
his life. He had been engaged during the day sheep-washing at the point
mentioned, and it seems, for the sake of diversion, attempted to swim to the
opposite bank. Being an excellent swimmer, the circumstcuice of his drowning
is accounted for only by the supposition that he was seized with cramp, and
the water being from eight to ten feet deep, he sank to his doom. The unfor-
tunate young man was a brother of Samuel Harrold, grain merchant, Brantford,
and bore a good reputation.
A number of years ago Thomas Gilmore was found drowned in the Grand
River. The circumstances of his death are shrouded in mystery, but his family
to this day suppose his death was the result of foul play. The unfortunate man
was missed for several days, when search was instituted, and his body found a
short distance below Middleport. He was one of the pioneer^ of the township,
the owner of an excellent farm, and much respected by his neighbours.
About five years ago. Rev. Mr. Lawson, a Methodist minister, was drowned
at Newport. It appears in attempting to ferry himself and horse across the
Grand River, by some unaccountable means the endless chain attached to the
boat broke, blocking him into the water, with the above melancholy result. His
horse was also drowned at the same time. The unfortunate gentleman's un-
timely death cast a deep gloom over his congregation and the community, where
he was widely known and greatly respected.
A fatal accident of a veiy distressing character occurred a number of years
back to Thomas Brown, another of our pioneer settlers. The causes of his
death have not transpired other than that he fell from a mow in his bam, and
sustained injuries which proved immediately fatal. He was a good citizen and
kind neighbour.
HISTOET OF BRANT CODWTT.
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP.
The northern division of the County of Brant is named after the birthplace
of the Hon. Wm. Dickson, who was the first to lay it out as a settlement It
consists of 46,459 acres, the south-western part of which is an almost unbroken
plain of great fertility, the rest being undulating ground of hill and valley, the
remains of extinct water-coursea. It is bounded on the north by North Dum-
fries Township, in the County of Waterloo ; on the south by the Township of
Brantford ; ou the east by the Township of Beverley, Wentworth County ; and
on the west by the Township of Blenheim, Oxford County.
Prior to its grant by the British Govenuueat to the Six Nation Indians, all
this tract of country was an untrodden wilderuess. There seems to be good
evidence that the Algonquin or Huron Indians ma4e their camp amid the oak
woods of South Dumfries at a period anterior to the history of civilized Ame-
rica ; for in several places in this township stone weapons and implement.^ have
faeenfonnd whicb,from their superior workmanship, must undoubtedly be assigned
to a date prior to the introduction of iron by the French traders of the six-
teenth century. But do trace has been left by these prehistoric hunters and
warriors beyond the heap of human bones and the stone knives and arrow heads
which are still dug up by thefarmereof "The Plains." The true history of Dum-
fries begins with its cession as part of the mnniticent grant bestowed on the Iro-
quois Indians under Colonel Brant in 1796. In the duel of two centuries
between France and England for the possession of North America, France
had chosen the losing side. The first arquebuse fired by Samuel De Champlain
against the Iroquois foes of his Algonquiu allies, began a vendetta in which
the last energies of the last effort; of Indian civilization were staked on
the side of the English-speaking race. The powerful confederacy of the
ot omy held the French colunial advance in check,
the British cause both against the French and the
be last chiefs of independent Indian warfare the
t of the Iroquois Chief Thayendanegea. Gifted by
)wess, all the hunter's and warrioi^s sagacity that
I king among sav^es, Thayendanegea had reaped
of the white man s civilization. He had pa^
, could compose with ease, and was no novice at
^timate aright the great power which Christianity
le white men ; he had visited England, and the
! pomp of cathedral worship, and the splendour of
I ma.de an indelible impression on the mind of the
aain object through life to assimilate, as far as
own people the institutions which made EDgland
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 431
great. All through the Sevolutionary War Thayendanegea and his people sided
with the servants of the English king. The noble spirits in the English Par-
liament felt with Chatham that their country was degraded by their alliance
with the Iroquois' scalping knife ; but war is war, and the Indian did his bloody
work well. When the war closed with victory for the new-born Republic, the
Six Nations of the Iroquois Cionfederacy, comprising the Mohawk, Seneca,
Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscarora and Onondaga tribes, finding that they could not
expect a peaceful settlement among the Americans, against whom they had been
carrying on all the atrocities of savage warfare, applied to the British autho-
rities for a grant of land in Canada. Their petition was generously and promptly
responded to.
Under the leadership of Thayendanegea, who now assumed the English
name of Colonel Joseph Brant, the Six Nations of the Iroquois crossed over
into Canada. One tribe of the Mohawks was settled on the shores of the Bay
of Quinte, where their chiefs name designates a station on the Qrand Trunk
SaUway, and where the Mohawk wolf, carved in stone, overlooks the doorway
of the beautiful church built by command of an English king for their benefit.
Another settlement was on the fertile and well-wooded banks of the Biver
Thames. But the ^largest of all the Indian Beserves was that of the Grand
River. From its source to its outlet, and six niiles on either side, was the mu-
nificent grant of the British Government to its savage allies. The Indians used
this territory chiefly as hunting grounds ; their chief camp was at.a place three
miles south of the present Town of Brantford, where a village of wigwams was
erected and a few fields of maize and corn were under permanent cultivation.
There, too, their chief, the Moses of their migration to this promised land, had
built them a church for the worship of the white man's God. It was the first
** church " built in what is now Upper Canada, and is still an object of interest,
together with the grave of the brave savage whose blood-stained hand helped
to build it. The chuich dates from 1786. The hunting grounds so ceded to the
Iroquois were some of the best provided in Canada with fish, game and fresh
water. For thirty years the Iroquois hunters roamed at will over what is now
Brantford and Dumfries ; where now every acre, cultivated by elaborate
machinery, fills the farmer's treasure-bouse with the finest wheat in the world,
the half naked and painted savage subsisted on the fiesh of bear or deer, trap-
ping the wild creatures that abounded in the primeval forest for the profit that
their peltry would bring in the markets of York or Newark. In the fall they
would make an expedition up the river in quest of the various fur-bearing ani-
mals ; in the spring they would return down its course, laden with the various
trophies of the chase. These expeditions continued to be made till within
living memory. Long after the pioneer's axe had cleared the oak groves of the
plains of South Dumfries, the older generation of settlers remember the Indian
camp amid a belt of wood to the north-west of the river. The Indians would
soon have forfeited their title to their lands if it had not been for the provident
care of the Goveiiiment, which restrained them from the sale of their reserves.
But Thayendanegea, in February, 1798, obtained from the Government permis-
sion to sell a part of the Grand Eiver Eeserve, and acting as had been arranged
by their representative, sold to Philip Stedman, of the Niagara District, that
part of the reserve known as Block Number One, consisting of 94,305 acres. This,
432 HISTOBT OF BBAMT CODWTY.
by a special Act of the Upper Canadian Legialatore, became henceforth knovn
as the Township of Dumfries. Mr. Stedman agreed to pay to the Indians the
sam of £8,841.
At the same time Colonel Brant, being fully empowered for the purpose both
by his own people and by the English Government, sold several other tracts of
hmd from the Grand River Reserve. In February, 179S, a deed, drawn up in
the name of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, formally surrendered
all interest in the following possessions : Block Number One, now forming
the two townships of North and South Dumfries, containing fully 91,305 acres,
was sold to Mr. Philip Stedman for £8,841 : Block Number Two was sold to
' Kichard Beasley, James Wilson and John B. Bosseau, for X8,S87; Block Number
Three was sold to William Wallace, comprising 86,078 acres, for the sum of
jE16,864 ; Block Number Four, no purchaser or price named, 28,512 acres ; Block
Number Five was sold to William Jarvis, 30,800 acres ; Block number six,
given originally to John Dockstader, was by him sold, for the benefit of his
Indian children, to Benjamin Canby, 19,000 acres, for £5,000. Total, 352,700
acres at a cost of ^£44,867.
But as tiie fee simple of those Indian lands was held by the Crown, consider-
able delay took place before the transaction could be completed. A petition
was formally addressed to King George III., praying him to issue Letters Patent
to convey the lands named in the purchase deed to Philip Stedman, This was
granted, and a Crown Patent was duly issued, which declared that Stedman had
given security to the Hon. David William Smith, Captain William Clause, and
Alexander Stewart, Esq, trustees for the Indians, for the payment of the principal
or its yearly interest. But it does not appear that Stedman made any effort to
secure his vast possessions. Indeed, they formed but a part of a vast wilderness,
the bauDt of wild beasts and still wilder men. When Upper Canada, in 1792,
was first separated from the Province of Quebec, its entire population was
estimated at 20,000 souls, most ot whom were centred at Kingston, the Bay of
Quinte, Niagara, and the Valley of the Thames. Toronto had just been founded
on the muddy banks of the Don by Qovemor Simcoe ; the pioneer axe had not
yet felled the first tree on the site of the towns and cities of to-day. A few
years after obtaining the patent from the Crown, Stedman died intestate. This
interest in Block Number One of the Grand River Reserve was thus inherited
by his sister, Mrs. John Sparkman, of Niagara, by whom it was soon afterwards
sold to the Hon. Thomas Clarke, of Stamford, in the County of Lincoln. It
R tliftt StfldiTiAn had not TKtid any of the purchase money originally agreed
ting a raorl^t^e for the sum of £8,841 on the
Six Nations. Hr. Clarke, however, disposed of
1 favour of one who must be regarded as the
)f Dumfries, the Hon. William Dickson. Like the
he Talbot Settlement — like Peter Perry, founder
Uiam Dickson was one of those energetic natures,
ing out the extensive operations incidental to the
His tall and commanding figure, little bent with
of the elder generation ;Tiis lofty forehead gave
fijm lips denoted the resolution and practical
through the history of the Dumfries Settlement
SOUTH DX7MFRIES TOWNSHIP. 433
William Dickson's measures were taken with the most prudent r^ard to the
exigencies of the case, while at the same time many a settler was indebted to
his enlightened generosity for not only his land but for seed to put into the
ground, and food to subsist on in the first year of settlement
Such was the man who now became, in July, 1816, the purchaser from Mr.
Thos. Clarke of the entire block of land,which he named after hisown native place
in Scotland, Dumfries. Bom in the year 1769, he came to Canada in 1792,
and settled at Niagara, where he engaged in practice as a lawyer. Having
volunteered .his services in the War of 1812, he was taken prisoner by the
Americans and nearly got into a serious scrape by shooting in a duel a gentle-
man named Weeks, who had offended Mr. Dickson's punctilious loyalty by
some free criticism of the policy of Grovemor Simcoe. The duel was fought on
the American side of the Niagara River, behind the fort ; Mr. Weeks was
mortally wounded at the first shot. At that time duelling was a recognized
social institution, and Mr. Dickson fared none the worse in public estimation
for having brought down his man.
Strongly attached to existing institutions, and being himself admitted on
equal terms within the magic circle ol the Family Compact, Mr. Dickson all
through was a staunch upholder of Church and State. In 1816 he became a
member of the governing body of Upper Canada, the Legislative Council, and
for many years continued to exercise a decided influence over the settlement
and legislation of this Province. Although personally the kindest and most
generous of men to the needy settler, Mr. Dickson was no advocate of popular
light, and withstood to the last every concession in the direction of responsible
Sovernment Toryism was to him a religion, and men who, like Dr. Duncombe,
emanded their rights for the people, he stigmatised as " rebels," the enemies
alike of God and man. Naturally, in the troubles of 1837 Mr. Dickson, though
then well on in years, gathered what force he could muster at Niagara, and
hastened to proceed by steamer to Toronto, where he assisted at the memorable
fight of Montgomery's Farm.
In July, 1816, Mr. Dickson for a sum of £24,000 bought the entire property
now constituting North and South Dumfries, which thus passed into his posses-
sion at a price of little more than a dollar an acre. Mr. Dickson was at that
time Chairman of the Quarter Sessions of Niagara, which was then the most
important centre in Upper Canada. As the new Court House was about to be
erected Mr. Dickson and his colleagues advertised for a contractor, and this
elicited an application from a young builder and carpenter named Absalom
Shade, a son of a Pennsylvanian farmer, whose industry and business talents
had already made him a marked man among the Niagara residents. He was a
tall, active-looking young man, with keen grey eyes always looking to the
main chance, hard dose lips and well-formed features, with versatile mind and
keen judgment, quick and retentive both in his likes and dislikes.
Mr. Shade had made the acquaintance of Mr. Dickson under circumstances
which tended to found a friendship that proved life-long. Mr. Dickson was,
when he first met Mr. Shade, a prisoner within the American lines ; Shade was
able to procure the British officer many privileges not usually granted to
prisoners of war, and finally managed to effect his escape.
434 HISTOBY OF BEAMT COCHTT.
Sach was the man whom Mr. Dickson induced to accompany him u his
steward and general factotum into his new Settlement of DumEties, where tot
many years he presided over the allotment of lands. Like Mr. Dicksun, Mr.
Shade, although au American citizen by birth, became a most loyal subject of
the Crown, and the bitterest enemy of anything that looked like rebellion
against Tory rule. Woe to the unhappy delinqnent who failed in r^^olar pay-
ment of his instalments of purchase-money ; for such Absalom Shade had no
mercy. Having agreed to Mr. Dickson's proposal. Shade, tiwether with bis
principal, made a visit to what is now Dumfries, but which was then an unbroken
wilderness. They arrived at the Grand River, near where Smith's Creek joins
the larger stream, and, goided by an Indian, ascended the course of the river
trough Sontb Dumfries, by a path through the forest so narrow that often it
was difficult for a single horseman to moke his way. "The Pluns " were over-
grown with an oak forest ; farther on the thick growth of cedar and maple,
mixed with beech and oak, showed the good quality of the soil. Everywhere
they encountered streams of fresh water, now and then small lakelets of pure
blue water, abounding in black bass and pika Continuing their journey noith-
ward, they made their camp in the ruins of a squatter's cabin, on the site (^
what is now Gait. Having fixed on this position as the nucleus of the new
settlement, they separated. Shade making his way through the woods of South
Dumfries to the site of the Village of St Gedrge, at which point he regained
the Grand River. This he followwl until he reached a small tavern at the ferry
over the fords of the Grand River, where Brantford now stands. Having
rejoined Mr. Dickson at Niagara, and provided himself with the necessary
equipment for pioneer life in the forest — a chest of tools and one hnndred
dollars cash — he set forth to build the first log shanty in the present Town of
Gait, which be Omt founded in the year 1816.
Mr. Dickson soon had his new territory surveyed. This was effiaently done
by Mr. Adrian Marlett, of Ancaster, who held the office of Provincial Ttepaty
Surveyor. The work of surveying was completed in the course of the foUow-
ing year. The remains of a dilapidated shanty on the bank of Mill Creek was
converted by Mr. Shade's ingenuity into a gnst-mill for the use of the five
fomilies who had come in as early as 1816. The settlement slowly progressed.
In 1817 the number of families in the township numbered thirty-eight, includ-
ing one hundred and sixty-three persons.
Mr. Dickson removed to Gait from his family residence at Niagara in 1SS7,
and continned to reside there till 1836, when, feeling the oversight of his vast
poeseBsions too much for his strength, he left the charge of his estate to his son,
Mr. Williun Dickson, and remov^ fiually to his native place, the old Town of
Niagara. like his friend Mr. Gait, after whom he named his first settlement,
Mr. Dickson was possessed of considerable literary talent, which he employed
:hes of the Dumfries region, which, being publifiwd
not a little influence in attracting the attention of his
to the new settlement. Mr. Dickson also emplt^ed
in order to secure the most desirable class of settkts,
1 by the founders of new communities, but yet of the
us it was that from 1823 to 1830 the plains ami
irere peopled with sturdy Scotch Presbyterian " titte
I PUBL.'^ Uoi.ARY
^
S0X7TH DX7MFRIES TOWNSHIP. 437
blue " settlers. It very often happens that the first to attempt a settlement are
poor and thriftless. They build their log shanties, clear a little land, get discour-
aged, and generally end by selling out to some new arrival with more means
and self-reliance. Such a settlement was that in the second concession of
South Dumfries, and known by the classic name of Cags Lane. It was so
named from the cags or kegs of whiskey procured at very frequently recurring
intervals from the distillery at the village which was beginning to grow up at
the Forks of the Grand River, as Paris was then called. A keg being procured
and deposited in one shanty, the neighbours from the adjoining houses hel4
festival nightly till its alcoholic contents were exhausted. Then another
neighbour took it in turn to journey with the keg to the distillery. This reck-
less and dissolute life ended in the gradual clearing out of the old settlers. A
new and very different class of proprietors took their place, and now no road
in western Canada can show such handsome and substantial buildings, such
rich and well-improved farms. Owing to Mr. Dickson's exertions a large number
of the new settlers were, as has been intimated, Scotchmen.
So much was this the case, that when, some years afterwards, Mr. Dick-
son, then about to withdraw from residence in Dumfries, held a grand
gathering of the Dumfries settlers at a dinner which he gave them at Gkilt,
he addressed them as his Scotch fellow-countrymen. He said : " It is to your
characteristic Scottish thrift; and energy that I and mine owe the success that
has attended our experiment in colonization. It is you, the farmers of South
Dumfries, that have made gentlefolks of me and mine." Among those who
attached themselves to the fortunes of Mr. Shade was . an American of Dutch
extraction, named John Mans. He drove the teams which conveyed the flour
from Mr. Shade's mills at Gait ; as soon as the fertile belt of land known as
" The Plains " was (q>ened out for settlement, Mr. Shade suggested that Mans
should go down and " prospect," with a view of taking up several hundred
acres of what promised to be very valuable land. John Mans objected his want
of means to find the purchase money, but this was overruled by Mr. Shade, who,
hard as he was to the thriftless and dishonest, was generously trustftil to any
settler in whose industry and integrity he had reason to trust Both were
leading features in the character of John Mans, both were found in the course
of his long and successful life, some account of which wiU be given when this
history readies the district of South DumMes known as " The Plains." The
success of the American, Shade, was the means of attracting several of his
energetic and adventurous fellow-countrymen to settle in South Dumfries. The
name of Capron, originally of French origin, is of frequent occurrence in Ver-
mont and other parts of New England. A cadet of this family, as a young
man, had a marked talent for caligraphy. Being employed as a writing master
in a young ladies' academy, he unfortunately was so imprudent as to give to
one of his fair pupils a lesson in a more difficult art than that of penmanship.
When it became necessary for him to expatriate himself, in partnership with a
Mr. YanNorman he for some time engaged in business at Long Point on Lake
Erie, and afterwards, on hearing of the success of the Dumfries Settlement, in
which the Village of Gkdt, Paris (the " Forks of the Grand River ") and Brant-
ford had already sprung up — Paris and Gait at the extremities of the twelve
26
438 HISTOBY OF BBANT CODNTT.
miles bteadtb of the new township — youog Hiram Capron arrived just in time
to secure on fiavoiirable terms a property of a thousand acres.
This was at the south-western part of the township, and included a coitGdd-
erable part of the present Town of Paris. Mr. Capron built a large and commo-
dious stone mansion ou the brow of the hill leading to "The Plains," and during
many year= resided there, being well linown as a good neighbour, a leading
citizen, and famous for his business enei^y and for the quips and jests, and
many stories with which he enlivened an ever-hospitable home.
. The birth of municipal institutions, that protoplasm of Canadian political
life which Fiancis Bond Head sneered at as " sucking parliaments," took place
at the house of a Mr. Gothp Moss (such being his uncouth cognomen), on Jan.
4th, 1819, exactly three years after the first inauguration of the settlement
The following officers were chosen — we take the account as given in Mr. James
Toung's admirable "Reminiscences of Gait and Dumfries," a most reliable source
of information on all matters connected with the early history of this region :
Township Uletk, Mr. John Scott ; Assessors, Messrs. John Buchanan and Law-
rence Shammerhorn; Collector, Mr. Ephraira Munson; Wardens, Mr. Alexander
Harvie and Mr, Richard Phillips ; Pathmasters, Messrs, Cornelius Conner,
Enos Griffith, James McCarty and John Leece ; Pound-keeper, Mr. John Law-
Tason.
The current of political agitation set more and more in the direction of
4Dunicipal self-government, and under the Liberal Administration of the
'Hincks-Morin Government, a new territorial distribution of Upper Canada took
place, whereby the original Township of Dumfries was divided Into two — North
Dumfries in the County of Waterloo, and South Dumfries at the northernmost
extremity of the County of Brant. The first Municipal Council of the new
Township of South Dumfries was composed of the following members : Daniel
Anderson, Reeve, and William Mullin, Deputy Reeve ; Robert Burt, William
Roy and James Sharp. The positions of Reeve and Deputy Reeve were for
nineteen years afterwards filled by the same gentlemen, Messrs. Daniel Ander-
son und William Mullin. We find in Mr. Young's "Reminiscences" that the first
officeis of the municipality were : Messrs. James Geddes, Clerk ; John Mac-
Naught, Treasurer ; liobert Ballingel, Assessor for the west side of the river ;
William Little, Assessor for the east side of the river ; and Robert Shiel, Col-
lector. Mr. Michael Charlton was amoi^ the first appointed io audit the
accoQuta.
mi. i?,_i Ti. j;,__gjjjjj^jy giggtion in which the settlers of South Dumfries
As the polling place in Wellington Square was at a
much interest in the election ; two Liberals were, however,
ley and William Scollich, a political selection which has
township evet since, with the exception of the general
n the Reform candidates were b^ten, and Messrs. J.
hisbolm were returned to Parliament
ish-spesking Canada did the tide of political excitement
pt away by its ebb as well as its now, by its abortive
its appeal to English sympathy, the tyranny of the cele-
,. In 1828, Wm. Lyon Mackenzie commenced the political
m party by publishing the C(d<mial AcUxmUc. In edi-
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 439
toiials of a literary merit unknown as yet to Canadian journalism, the Advocate
exposed with trenchant but not unjust criticism the nepotism, the arrogance,
and the unconstitutional despotism of the oligarchy which governed the
Province, and usurped all office and emolument under the name, long since
held of sinister import, of the Family Compact. All that Mackenzie contended
for has long been conceded to the common sense of public opinion. We are
now so thoroughly accustomed to choose our own representatives, to select each
for himself his own church without fear or favour, to express with the fullest
liberty our opinions on each and every political question, that we are apt to
forget that scarce fifty years ago such privileges were contended for in hope
deferred for years, and the bitterness of patient battle by men who were stig-
matized as "rebels," who were hunted out of the country, and well nigh
perished on the scaffold.
The feeling in favour of the Reform cause was in no part of Upper Canada
more strong than in South Dumfries. Dr. Duncombe's personal character, his
eloquence as a public speaker, his lofty purity as a statesman, joined to the
influence which his professional skill and generous disposition gave him among
his neighbours, made the impulse towards the Reform cause irresistible. He
was chosen to visit England in order to lay before Government the popular
demands of Upper Canada. Of course, such a " trumpet of sedition " — for so
was the popular leader designated — met with scant favour at the hands of the
dominant oligarchy. It happened that Dr. Duncombe had been desirous of
purchasing a tract of land, and indeed had already taken the requisite steps to
make the purchase valid. But the Family Compact influence interfered, and,
contrary to all justice and fairplay, as the English Premier acknowledged
when^ a year afterwards the circumstances were explained to him. Dr.
Duncombe*s just claim was defeated.
It may be imagined that the Scotch Presbyterian farmers of $outh Dumfries
looked on with a bitter sense of injustice rankling in their hearts when, in order
to secure to the use of one favoured Church the coveted Clergy Reserves, Sir
John Colbome, prompted by the High Church and Tory Bishop Strachan,
established fifty-seven endowed rectories in Upper Canada. In vain did public
opinion express itself by returning to the House of Assembly a majority of
Reform candidates. As the Qovemment of Charles the First ignored the will
of the English people, expressed through the votes of the Parbament ; as the
Government of the third Stewart tyrant set at naught the representatives of the
people, so the Family Compact, abetted by such governors as Sir John Colbome,
continued to usurp every office and insult the advocates of Reform till it made
them the planners of a revolution.
Five times was William Lyon Mackenzie expelled from the House of As-
sembly ; five times his constituents in the County of York carried him back
triumphant from the polL In every attempt to reseat Mr. Mackenzie the
name of Abraham Shade appears on the Parliamentary voting list. All his
interest, all that of Mr. William Dickson, was exerted on the side of " loyalty "
and of the Family Compact Government. But very few of those most closely
connected with the Dickson and Shade interest sympathized with the enemies
of Reform. Mr. John Mans and his connection by marriage, Mr. Lapierre, stood
alone or almost alone in their advocacy of the Government. In 1833 William
442 HISTORY OF BRAUT COUNTY.
the fipont door of Mr. Laishaw's house just as Mr. Lount left it by the kitchcM
door. But there were facilities for concealment in that neighbourhood which
induced the Latshaws to advise his remaining amongst them. He would not,
however, be persuaded, and at last, under Mr. Latshaw's guidance, left for
Niagara, where, at the last moment, when safety seemed certain, he was arrested
in the act of crossing the river. A largely signed petition for his release and
that of Mathews was sent from South Dumfries. But the Qovemment of the
day were merciless in their hour of triumph. Lount and Mathews suffered death
on the scaffold at Toronto on April 12th, 1838. They are laid in a place
unmarked by any monument in the public cemetery, ana a free people, whose
right to responsible government, to religious and civil equality, they died to
win, pass to and fro unconcerned beside their nameless graves.
The Grand River enters this township at the north-east and flows to the
south-west, through the Village of Glenmorris and the Town of Paris, where it
is joined by the smaller river known as Smith's Creek, on the north. Fairchild's
Creek waters the eastern part of South Dumfries. There are many smaller
water-courses and several ponds. The largest of these, situated on some land
called Dickson's Seserve, is Blue Lakd, noted for the crystal purity and beauti-
ful colour of its water, whose shores are a favourite resort for the lovers of
beautiful scenery in summer. This township is traversed by the Great Western
Bailway from east to west, which enters it at Harrisburg, and has stations at
St. George and Paris. At Paris it crosses the Grand Trunk. The Welling-
ton, Grey and Bruce branch line passes north from Harrisburg, where also
the branch line to Brantford connects.
South Dumfries comprises the thriving Villages of Si George and Glen*
morris. The general aspect of the country is hilly, except at the country called
" The Plains," five miles north of Paris.
At the last census (1881), the total population of South Dumfries is esti-
mated at 3,490, there being 663 families and 665 inhabited housea As usual the
population of females is in excess of the males. Of religious denominations^
that which has the largest number of adherents is the Methodist Church, whose
members number 1,249. Next to that is the Presbyterian Church, which number*
1,093. Then comes the Adventists, of whom there are 584 ; the Church of
RngUnH^ with a member role of 246 ; the Roman Catholics, of 228. Besides these
there are ten Plymouth Brethren, and eight who have not made up their mind
to adopt any religious denomination. The political differences which in the
troublesome times of 1837 caused so much oifference and separated neighbour
from neighbour, have long ago softened down, and nothing but harmony and
good f eeung prevails among those who were once ready to settle their political
differences with the sword. But the great body of the electors of South Dum-
fries gave a solid vote for the Liberal side at the late election. Although the
Conservative candidates were men who most deservedly stood high in public
estimation, the Libera^ member was carried in by acclamation. Mr. James
Young, who for some time has most efficiently represented the North Biding
of Brant in the Ontario Legislative Assembly, is a man of much culture, and
his " Bemiuiscences of the Eaxly History of Gait and the Settlement of Dum-
fries" is a valuable aid to the historian, written in a lively style, and embodying
much valuable information which, but for Mr. Young's care in preserving i^
SOXTTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 443
would have been lost. The " Reminiscences " was published by Messrs. Hunter^
Bose & Co., Toronto, in 1880. Having given the reader a general sketch of the
history of the Township of South Dumfries, we shall now deal with it more in
detail, taking at first the course of the Grand Biver northward, then fromk
Glenmorris to Si George, and westward to Harrisburg and the eastern verge
of the township.
But before leaving the subject of the general history of South Dumfries, we wish
to quote, as endorsation of what has been said as to the goodness of the soU and
also the farming enterprise of the township, the Government Agricultural Report
for 1881. The judges appointed to examine, under very stringent conditions,
those farms to which the prizes par excellence of farming have been awarded
in this Province, describe with great minuteness of technical detail their visits
to several prize farms in South Dumfries. We quote the substance of what
is said of one of them, the farm of Mr. Barker, near Paris. Tbis farm, situated
in South Dumfries ou the road from Paris to Ayr, comprises some two hundred
acres, described by the judges as "good sandy loam, fourteen acres wood and
twelve permanent pasture." It is divided by the road locally known as Uuson's
Boad, and part of it is crossed by the Great Western Railway ; the portion
towards the Grand is rougher than the rest of the farm, but is well suited for
stock and abundantlv supplied with water. The judges describe with admira-
tion a field of fall wheat which they saw on this farm, the edges of it cut down
enough to admit the reaping machine. Besides the fall wheat there were
"seventeen acres of barley, fifteen acres of oats, six of peas (* golden vein'),,
eight of turnips, one of potatoes, one-third of an acre of carrots, two acres of
com, thirty of hay, and fourteen extra of pasture." All the crops are described
by the judges as " good and level, showing every evidence of thorough working
and high culture." There was a remarkable absence of weeds, every furrow
and drill was mathematically straight " as if laid out by a gardener's line."
There were eighteen head of cattle, several fine specimens of the Durham
breed. The report lays special emphasis on the neatness and orderliness with
which everything was arranged — " a place for everything and everything in its
place ;'* they also praise the adoption by Mr. Barker of the American system of
duplicating everv separate part of the machinery employed, so that if any
breakage takes place the loss can be at once repaired. Finally, the judges noted
the elegance of the house, grounds and driving carriages, remarking very justly
on the benefit to the farmer and his family of giving some thought to the ele-
gances and relaxations of life, something else being needed to encourage the
young tl^an a life of incessant and monotonous labour.
An equally favourable account is given in the grave, matter-of-fact official
blue-book of several other farms in South Dumfries, notably that of Mr.
Louis Lapierre, which consists of 360 acres, 265 of them under cultivation. Mr.
Lapierre's farm is a model of industrious energy, and, as will be seen in our
special account of his district of South Dumfries, he was one of the first to intro-
duce into the township the use of machinery, which has in a few years done so
much to revolutionize agriculture. All that was said by the judges of the
domestic elegance of the home surroundings on Mr. Barker's farm applies with
equal force to that of Mr. Lapierre.
444 mSTOBT OF bramt gountt.
« The Plains."
North of Paris, as we enter the Township of South Dumfries, is an extensive
stretch of perfectly level land, which is known as " The Plains." This is some
of the most fertile grain-bearing land in all Ontario. A similar table-land is
found on the other side of the Grand River ; but the soU is poorer, the sub-
stratum of rock being nearer to the surface. The soU in the part of ** The Plains"
west of the Grand Kiver is composed of sand, loam and clay, in almost equal
proportions on the various farms ; boulders and cobble-stones, relics of the ice
age and contemporaries of the mammoth and of the cave bear, are scattered
over the land, and are much used in forming a solid but irregular-looking
masonry for churches and dwellings. A dark-coloured sandstone is also found,
and forms excellent and durable, as well as good-looking material for the many
substantial homesteads.
These have a solid appearance of comfort that testifies to the farmer's success
and the productiveness of the soil. About thirty years ago souie of those
malcontents at other people's good fortune, who are always ready to blight
present enjoyment by their prophecies of evil, seeing the abundant yield of
grain from the com-fieldn of '*The Plains," scornfully predicted that snch
fertile land must necessarily exhaust its wonderful productive power, and that
three }'ears' time would very much depreciate their crops both in Quantity and
quality. Thirty years have passed for the three of the false prophets of evil ;
it is a fine day in the summer harvest time ; let us drive along the " Sprague "
or Gait Road ; see those huge machines that move along the close-shorn wheat-
growth with the precision of clockwork, mowing down all before them ; nay,
gathering and binding each sheaf ; or see those threshing machines, those strong
dozen or so of toiling horses, as they tread the magic circle amid the whir of
wheels and clouds of dust ; for so gather they in the harvest gold into the
farmer 8 treasury. For the agriculturalists of " The Plains" have kept pace with
modern progress. Had they been content with the methods of cultivation used
of old, the predicted failure of their crops might have befallen them years ago.
But at present the crops amount to three times as viuch as thirty years since. As
in other progressive sections of the Province of Ontario, the farmers of " The
Plains" very early saw the wisdom of introducing machinery. The first
reaping machine used in Canada was that used by Mr. John Mans. It had to
be fetched in a waggon from Poi*t Dover. This machine, less elaborate than
later inventions of the same kind, was not furnished with a driving seat, the
want of which was supplied by a piece of plank supported on each side by two
other planks fastenea to the machine. This rough-and-ready arrangement
broke down, and the boy who was driving had a narrow escape from being
crushed by the ponderous machine. Twenty years ago Mr. Louis Lapierre
was the first to use a seed drill ; it was manufactured iti Dundas.
Rough were the duties, and most unremitting the toils for first settlers who
acquired farm settlements in "The Plains " from about 1820 to 1830. As a rule
these seem, however, to have been men possessed of some capital ; they came
resolved not to spare expense or exertion in making the earth yield forth her
increase ; and the result of this, joined with the exceptional fertility of "The
Plains" district, made this community a more speedily thriving one than was to
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 445
be found in those older settlements where the pioneers were almost wholly
without other resources than their bodily labour. Some of the first generation
of settlers on ''The Plains" died in possession of considerable wealth. From the
first the cattle and the horses were of a superior quality, and if labour was un-
remitting, at least it was aided by many of those subsidiary appliances which
make the results of labour certain. Nor was the toil of the pioneer families
without its compensations ; the raising bee and the quilting bee, the good-fellow-
ship of the former and the rustic flirtations of the latter ; the ring of the rifle
in the woods, and the gliding of graceful girl-figures over the ice-pool which
supplied the place of a fashionable rink, were the foims under which they knew
that happiness of youth and sympathy which began with Paradise and will
go on till Doomsday ! And if with some of these festive gatherings there
mingled a misguided hospitality which caused too frequent excess, let us rejoice
in the spread of enlightened Christian feeling, which in our day makes such
excess the exception and not the rule.
As has been intimated, many of the pioneers of " The Plains" wei*e men of
refinement, and set high value on education, and the mental as well as mone-
tary preparation of their children for the world and life. Very early in the
formation of the settlement the school houses beran to rise. The first was built
in 1830 ; the farms being veiy close together made access easier for the children ;
and great as we consider the improvement effected by the de3er\'edly valued
school system of our Province at the present day, many who remember the
rough-and-ready extemporized school arrangements of fifty years ago, are of
opinion that there was, after all, in many cases a heartiness and a force
in the simple methods of the old-time pedagogue which somehow seems
strangely lacking in the more correct methods of the duly-certificated teacher
who has passed through all ordeals of examinations, and answered all the
puzzle-papers of the Department at the present day. As an instance, the School
Trustees engaged a wandering " waif and stray," a Scotchman, who had been
educated for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, by name Benoch or
Bannoch. He proved an admirable teacher, bating an occasional lapse from
duty, owing to his indulgence in the cup that cheers so little and inebriates so
much ! In mathematics especially was he a valuable instructor, having the
gift which some of more modem methods and higher pretensions lack, that' of
gaining ready access to the pupiVs mind, of appreciating his difficulties, and
showing him how they can be removed. So great became the dominie's fame,
that many grown up people of both sexes, whose education had been utterly
neglected during their youth, were glad to come, with a single-minded huinility
that was much to their credit, and sit on the school-benches among the chil-
dren. Thither came the young farm-hand anxious to learn as much simple
ciphering as should serve his turn in reckoning up his wages; there bent
over her copy book's " pot-hooks and hangers " the young " hired girl," desirous
of being able to write her signature to that momentous document by which a
woman discounts the happiness of her future. The dominie was a strict dis-
ciplinarian, a ruler who did not bear the sword in vain, a literal interpreter of
all that King Solomon has written about the benefit of the rod. He would
smite sore the delinquent at his lessons ; nay, it was a common thing to see
him thump the ears and shoulders of grown up lads and even of strong men
446 HISTOBT OF BEAlfT COUNTY.
when slow to apprehend his instmciions. These chastisemoits were invariably
submitted to without a murmur. The young women he punished more mildly
by pinching the ear, or pulling the long back hair. We have been unable to
obtoin any information as to whether this no doubt salutary discipline was
borne by the fair sex with their usual patience. But the historian has his
doubts on this point
This master taught at " The Plains" for four years ; then getting dissatisfied, or
from some restless impulse of his Bohemian nature, he moved to Berlin, where
he had a school for a year or two ; he then returned to another section of " The
Plains," where he taught for two years more. He is not unkindly remembered
by his old pupils. A more cultured teaching was at this time supplied by the
Bev. Mr. Morse, the clergyman of the English Church at Paris, who opened a
private school, to which two pupils, sons of two farmers of " The Plains," used
to resort daily.
" The Plains " have thus enjoyed a healthy intellectual atmosphere, and have
been comparatively free from political strife, in part perhaps owing to the fact
that the worthy farmers are all of the same way of thinking, and to quarrel-
is therefore impossible.
The place is equally healthy from a physical point of view. No malaria can
find a lair in the wide breezy expanse, high above the rapid-flowing river.
Such diseases as diphtheria are unknown, and during the cholera plague of 1835
there were but two deaths from this cause on " The Plains."
Among those of this part of the Township of South Dumfries who have attained
to official distinction, may be mentioned Mr. Louis Lapierre, son of a Lower
Canadian gentleman who, about 1825, settled on the fourth concession. Mr. La-
Eierre has filled many important positions both in the township and the county,,
aving been Beeve of the former and Warden of the latter. It so happened that
his father's death took place while Canada was subject to the law of primo-
geniture, and that by consequence all his late father's property passed without
condition into Mr. Lapierre s possession. With a regard to duty as rare as it
was honourable, he set aside for his younger brother some two Jiundred acres,
which he knew their father had intended for him, portioned his sisters, and pro-
vided for his mother. Mr. Daniel Anderson, another of " The Plains" worthies,
had the honour of being the first Beeve of the new township. Young Mr.
Smoke, also of this section, was for some time one of the staff of Professors at
the University of Victoria CoUege, Cobourg, which position, though a most
popular and successful teacher, he abandoned in order to prepare for practice at
the Bar.
There is one church situated on " The Plains ;" it belongs to the Methodists,
who were among the very earliest pioneers of religious organization in the
district As early in the history of the settlement on " The Plains " as fifky
years ago, the itinerant Methodist missionary held periodical services in the
old school house which in those primitive days served to shelter both education
and religion. One very impressive preacher, a minister who was blind, is still
remembered. There was no organ, not even a tuning-fork, but the tune was
boldly raised and led by a doughty choir-leader, Mr. James Y. Smith, who
for some years taught the tuneful art, in which indeed, after the fashion of those
days, he had no little skill ; and if that church music was not very refined, it
had at least heart and the courage of its opinions.
SOTJTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 447
The church of " The Plains," or, as the legend thereon engraved entitles it,
the " Wesleyan Methodist Chape V was bnilt in 1843. It is an unpretending
but neat and substantial country church, built of the cobble-stone masonry
mentioned above ; a similar material has been used for the English Church at
Paris, but the workmanship of the local masons at " The Plains " seemed to be
the better. Old Mr. Mans gave the site for this church ; he, Mr. Lapierre, Senr.^
and a few others, made up the money required for material, which amounted to
$1,000 ; but as the people gave all the labour of construction as a free offering,
the real cost of the building was far more than the estimate. The dimensions
of the church are thirty feet by forty, just suitable to its small but earnest con-
gregation. To this church, amid a numerous gathering, the body of the elder
Mr. Mans was borne for funeral rites. In its little churchyardT, commemorated
by a modest monument, his remains are at rest. The present Trustees of the
Methodist Church on '* The Plains " are Mr. John Mans, Mr. Henry Mans, Mr.
William Mans, Mr. Egerton Thdmpson, Mr. Thomas Carr, Mr. Frank Helliker,
Mr. Louis Lapierre, and Mr. A. Y. Andrews. Money exchange was unknown in
the early days of this part of the township. As in the others, barter prevailed
for all commerce that could be carried on ; even the wheat was carried in
waggon or sleigh to Dundas and brought back as flour in barrels, mimbs the
very liberal allowance retained by the miller as perquisite. The same arrange-
ment prevailed in every transaction of life ; a young lady's marriage portion
was estimated in horses, cows, sheep or real estate ; her wedding-fee partly, it
might be, in kind (by a chaste salute), partly in rolls of butter or cords of
wood ; even the doctor, when professional assistance came next in order, was
rewarded, very liberally as a rule, with food or fuel
Three years ago the church of " The Plains " underwent a process of reno-
vation. A new ceiling was provided, the seats were cushioned : an organ has
been procured, and the singing is now worthy of any country church of the
day. The scenery along the Gait Soad is very charming ; the rich tranquil
fann land of those prairies of South Dumfries contrasts with the broad and
rapid river and the fringe of woods still left as a memorial of the not very
remote past This Gait Soad, which leads northward to the Village of Gleu-
morris, is locally called the " Sprague Eoad," after an earlier pioneer of that
name, who kept a small tavern three miles north some forty years back.
We have said that this section of South Dumfries deserves credit for mode-
ration on religious as well as political questions. The Presbyterians of the
western part of the township go to worship at Paris from ** The Plains " section,
to the church at Glenmorris from the section north of " The Plains." " The
Plains " people form a pastoral community peculiar to the locality ; the
families are much allied by intermarriage. Quietly conducted as are the
elections of the present day, a different scene was to be witnessed at the elec-
tions of the early days of the settlement For then a cask of beer and a keg
of whiskey were brought on the scene ; there never was a fight or serious mis-
chief, as the strong good fellowship and many mutual alliances were able even
to counteract the enemy then too frequently put " within the mouth to steal
away the brains." The strict election law of the present day, by which the
slightest attempt at " treating " is forbidden on the day when the public will
is pronounced at an election, has, however, saved much that was to be regretted
448 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTT.
here as elsewhere. Daring the polling it was the custom to keep one elector
whose vote had not been polled in readiness, lest the time assigned by law for
the process of recording votes having elapsed without any elector comiog
forward to record his vote, the poll, might be closed. The oratory of those
early days, as might be expected, was characterised rather by homely common
sense than by lofty flights of eloquence, and the speaker's personal character
and skill as a farmer and man of business had most to do with ensuring
the attention of his neighbours.
We have mentioned that large formations of clay and loam are found in this
level part of South Dumfries ; these occur at times in belts of a mile across,
at others in smaller quantities, alternating with each, and with deposits of sand
on the same farm. Beneath it, at a depth of from one to several feet, lies a
stratum of that blue fossiliferous limestone which stretches all through the
western part of Canada, till it crosses into the Lower Province in that bar of
precipitous rock over which the whole flood of the Ottawa thunders. With the
granite are often found deposits of gravel, the relics of some extinct spring or
water-course. A stratum of very workable brown-blue sandstone also extends
over " The Plains " from east to west, while the limestone runs towards the
south-west From the evidence afforded us bv several of the oldest survivors
of the earliest tihies of this settlement, and bv the sons of those who have
passed away, the country, called from its principal settler, the venerable foander
of the Mans' family, "Mans' Plains," and since then shortened into "The
Plains," was originally covered thickly with large oak trees. These had
short, thick trunks, with spreading boughs and foliage. Now the original oaks
of forest growth, like pines and other trees which grow together in the bosh,
have their boughs and foliage at the top, the presence of " a boundless con-
tiguity of trees " not allowing their expansion laterally. Therefore the con-
clusion is drawn that these " oak openings " were a second growth succeeding
to the original oak forest which had been burned by lightning, or by the camp
fires of Indians ; the latter cause seems the most probable. As has been said
elsewhere in this history of South Dumfries, there exists clear evidence that
some other Indians roamed these wilds before their cession to the Iroquois Six
Nations by the British Government in 1783. In various places on these very
Plains, Indian bones and flint arrow-heads have been found, proving that here
they had in this region at one time a favourite camping ground. The great
size of these oak stumps proved that the destruction of the previous growth
must have taken place at a considerable distance of time ; the stone arrow-
heads also point to an age of Indian warfare when they had not yet adopted iron.
These arrow-heads were chiefly discovered on the farm of Mr. Sovereign, now
of Paris, whose father was one of the earliest settlers in this part of South Dum-
fries. They are unusually long, from two inches to six and seven, and are
keenly edged and pointed. Such fine work in stone weapons became a lost art
soon after the French traders of the sixteenth century taught the Indians to
use iron. Mr. Sovereign had quite a store of these interesting relics, but he
good-naturedly lent them to a traveller from the old country, who forgot to
return them.
As has been intimated, the settlers of this district of South Dumfries were,
almost without exception, men sufficiently well off in the world to put some capital
SOUTH DUMFBIES TOWNSHIP. 449
into the land which they purchased from the Hod. Mr. Dickson, or his agent
and factotum, Mr. Shade. Yet their inheritance when they entered on it was
the same unbroken wilderness, which had fallen before the axes of the U. E.
immigrants of 1783. For the first several years bears abounded in the woods,
west and north of " The Plains." But these are never known to have attacked a
man, although they did great harm to corn-fields and the smaller cattle. Many
stories are told by the old men of Bruin being met and slain by boys bold
enough to emulate David's hunting-feats, with no other weapons than a staff.
But there were other sylvan pests more difScult to fight. The lynx, our Ameri-
can leopard, clinging to branch or tree trunk with the strong claws of the
feline, waited, unseen but seeing, for the boy or girl who might stray beneath
unguarded. As fierce in its flesh-hunger and idmost as strong, the wild cat
has been known to spring, when brought to b&y, full seven feet into the air to
her refuge in a tree. These creatures have been known to attack men ; and few
dogs could fight them. A farmer of this district tells how, pursued when un-
armed by one of them, he sought refuge in a bam, and just as he closed the
door the ferocious creature sprang against it, endeavouring to tear open the
woodwork with tooth and claw.
The latest survivors of these pests of the forest were some of the farmers' most
dangerous neighbours — the wolves. Long after " The Plains " had been cleared
and settled, packs of wolves used to prowl over them to gather with ill-boding
cries round the cattle enclosures ; and in manv cases they have been seen,
gaunt in the moonlight, through the crevices of the farmers' log houses. The last
wolf killed on " The Plains " was a huge dog- wolf, whose entry spread conster-
nation in the farm-yard of Mr. Hiram Oapron, within the Paris limits. It was
speedily shot by Mr. McMichael, who happened just then to enter the farm-
yard. A pack of wolves has been known to follow a sleigh through Dumfries
to Gait, and two men, who were driving a team of oxen laden with wheat from
Guelph to Gait, were attacked in the darkness before dawn bv several of these
animals, who, acting in concert, as is their custom, sprang at tne drivers on each
side. The men struck at them with their whips, and so with difiiculty kept
them at bay till daylight.
As an instance of the eager industry with which the process of self-help was
carried on, we may mention an anecdote told us by Mr. Conkling. Visiting
Mr. Mans' farm, he found that gentleman, who had been lamed by a fall, sitting
on horseback and sowing his seed, while in another field his two little boys
were ploughing. Hard work was no punishment to men like these.
It has been mentioned that the first threshing-machine uned on " The Plains "
was the common property of Mr. Mans and Mr. Lapierre, The first reaping-
machine was introduced by Mr. Showers. The first who imported into the
settlement improved breeds of sheep and cattle were Messrs. Sovereign, Mans
and Lapierre. By these South Downs and Merinos were purchased, and were
speedily a success, the neighbours of the settlement crowding to see them. One
of the causes of both the general good feeling and of the generous rivalry in all
agricultural improvement of the settlers of " The Plains," we trace to the feet of
their houses being built so close together. For their farms have each a very
narrow frontage, stretching far back from this to the Grand River. In passing
along the Gait Eoad west of the river you see, almost at every few rods' dis-
450 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
tance, a handsome villa-like residence and often a tenant's house on the same
farm. A further test of the rapid improvement caused by this friendly emula-
tion was the number of prizes at the county and other agricultural fairs and
shows won by this portion of the township, which may truly be called the
garden of South Dumfries.
We have mentioned the earliest school, called " The New School," or, " Mans'
School," from this universal benefactor of the settlement having deeded the land
for its erection. In 1830 it was taught by a Miss Andrews, who afterwards
married a Dr. Lowden. As we were informed by Mrs. Conklin, who as a girl of
tender years attended there, Miss Andrews was an excellent teacher, although
the best of these primitive pedagogues was the Mr. Bannoch already referred
to as so strict a disciplinarian with young and old. But before there was any
building for the purpose of school teaching, this was carried on chiefly by
female teachers, whose acquirements must have been very limited, as they did
not include even the elements of arithmetic ! These ladies taught reading,
spelling and writing, in a private house, receiving from each family a dollar a
week and '' boarding round." But in the winter season, a male teacher of some-
what greater acquirements was usually engaged at a more liberal salary for
some three months. To these teachers of the unknown mysteries of arithmetic,
we are assured by the lady from whose reminiscences we have quoted above,
it was common for grown up people of both sexes to resort, only too anxious
to learn what had, through no fault of theirs, been neglected in youth.
Preaching as well as teaching existed in this part of South Dumfries long
before even a school house was provided for its accommodation. The Method-
ist itinerant preachers visited the place every four weeks, although it was not
on the Paris Circuit. Thither rode, by difficult and often dangerous paths, the
Methodist preacher from Long Point on Lake Erie to Brantford, to Paris, to
Blenheim, to Gait and Copetown. The untiring preacher of the Word was a
Btriking picture of self-help as well as Christian piety. Under favourable
circumstances the round from station to station mi^ht be got through in four
weeks. But this could, indeed, seldom be calculated on. In spring and fall
the numerous swamps were almost impassable to the deftest horseman, the
weary horse sinking knee deep at every step. In summer the swarms of mos-
quitoes were enough to madden steed and rider. In winter the snow rampart,
wreathed with ghastly drifts, blocked the way impenetrably ; and the tired
missionary and his horse were glad to accept the common but generously shared
food and shelter of the nearest squatter's shanty.
Our friend Mr. Conklin, formerly of " The Plains," has described to us his
first view of one of the West Canadian missionaries. Bestriding a strong,
serviceable steed, the good man rode up to " Mans' School House." Across
his saddle hung his canvas saddle bags, containing his Bible, hymn book, and
a scanty stock of bread or biscuit. We have mentioned the impression still
retained in advanced life, which the preaching of a certain blind preacher made
on the mind of one of our informants when a boy. This gentleman's name was
Long ; to him are due the most successful of the several revivals held in the
church of " The Plains."
If the Minister arrived on a week-day, it made no difference. It was the
school children's mission to carry round the summons, " You go to the preach-
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 451
ing." Once, we are informed, the preacher arrived at the mid-day dinner time.
But these good Christians preferred spiritual to bodily food, and service was
immediately held. The names of Pringle and Law are to this day held in
honour as those of two elders who preached the Qospel faithfully. The Bap-
tists share with the Methodists the honour of having been the pioneers of reu-
gion in " The Plains." They were kindly welcomed by the tolerant people, as
was Mr. DeLong, a Quaker, and crowds attended the preaching of good old Mrs.
Long, a member of the same goodly and venerable sect. Old residents have
described to us how she would sit in quiet meditation for a few minutes until,
as she believed, " the Spirit moved her." Soon came the outpouring of simple,
earnest and touching words concerning God and duty. Then she would quietly
close the exercises by saying to her audience, "Now, thee may go home." Always
ready to be of use to others, the itinerant missionary very often carried the
mail bags from station to station. Fortunately these were seldom likely to be
a heavy burden at a day when there were few business transactions, and when
letters came few and far between. Despite the generally acknowledged and
practised duty of Christian toleration, it seems that there were exceptional
cases. A sect calling themselves "Christians" (pronounced " chreist-iana,"
for they were quite distinct from the " Christians," or " Bible Christians," who
form such a respectable part of the great Methodist body), held a doctrine of
there being " Two Gods," some obscure form, most probably, of Arian or So-
dnian speculation. Of this sect two of the settlers, Godfrey and Hilden, pro-
fessed themselves adherents. On one occasion a Methodist minister being about
to hold service at the school house, they requested him to give out notice of a
sermon, to be delivered on the next Sunday by one of their own pneachers. He
refused, saying that he could not conscientiously give notice of a sermon to be
preached by one who denied the divinity of his Ix)rd.
Such were these pioneer church services, such the earnestness, the intense
faith of those who preached and of those who were taught. And as an old
farmer from " The Plains " saic} lately to one who was vaunting the handsome
church and fine sacred music in Paris, " Ah, sir ! there were Toore tears shed
at those old school-room services." Besides the earlier preachers referred to, at
a later time the Church of " The Plains " was ministered to by Bev. Messrs.
Coleman and Prindle, Barker and Dows, the two last mentioned from Paris.
The roads that traverse this district are remarkably good, being worked by
statute labour of the settlers along the line, whose houses, as has been men-
tioned, are situated more closely together than in most country districts. There
are two main roads leading to Gait on both sides of the Grand River, both
running due north-east in the direction of Glenmorris. No toll-gate or turn-
pike has ever been found necessary on these roada At every mile there is a
cross-road east and west between the concession lines. All these are kept in
good order by the people, and whether in summer amon^ the ripening harvest
fields and shady oaks and maples, or in the good old-fasnioned sleighing of a
not too snow-drifted winter, our Province can afford no more pleasant drive.
The account of the gypsum mines, and of the methods of manufacture of that
invaluable fertilizer of the soil, belong rather to Paris, and will be treated of in
our account of that town. But the principal gypsum formations are in South
Dumfries, very aear Paris, and on the east side of the Grand River. The owner
of the land where the gypsum is found is Mr. GilL
452 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
In the early times of ** The Plains " settlement, the farmers had some chance
of a little profit by shooting the abundant game whose peltry, though not so
valuable as now, was yet gladly purchased by traders. Beavers were abundant,
and on pond and stream they built their industrious villages ; there too the
otter was shot for its beautiful soft fur. There were plenty of mink and musk-
rat, and for some time after the district was cleared, deer were frequently seen
approaching by two and three so close to the farm houses that they were some-
times brought down from the door by the settler's rifle. In one case, a lady
from Paris had been promised some venison by a farmer on '* The Plain&" He
did not come at the time appointed, and she sent to ask the reason. The settler
excused himself, but promised that at a set time next day it should be forth-
coming. He shouldered his rifle, went into the wood, and brought down a fine
deer. The venison was duly .sent up to time as promised.
The only social or reformatory organizations which have been carried on
among the people of " The Plains " are those of the temperance movement The
first of these was inaugurated by the Baptist Church, through the instrumen-
tality mainly of Mr. Latshaw, Senr., and his family. This was forty years ago.
The society was not organized systematically, nor affiliated with the Sons of
Temperance, or any of the great temperance bodies then extant. It was
simply a private venture for the good of " The Plains " community, undertaken
by a few good men and women on a very simple and unpretending scale. It
did not seem to take hold ; the times were unfavourable ; the temperance move-
ment had not as yet taken hold of the public mind in that part of Canada ; but
it deserves to be remembered to the credit of Mr. Latshaw and his friends.
Several ojJier efforts at temperance societies have been tried by the Method-
ist clergy, of which, after careful inquiry among the leading members of the
Methodist Church on " The Plains,'' we have been unable to obtain any particular
account There has been little drunkenness in this quiet community, and even
when whiskey in the good (or bad) old times cost only eighteen cents a gallon, there
was not much more drinking than at present It is true that then the black bottle,
now condemned to a furtive existence in cupboards or recesses, then put in an
appearance on all occasions, public or private. In Homer's description of the
scenes of ancient Greek life depicted on the shield of Achilles, there is a picture
of a ploughman following the oxen through the furrows of the field, and at the
end of each furrow stands a man with cups of wine to give each of them a
draught. On the harvest-fields of " The Plains " the strong drink was not quite
so liberally dispensed as in Old Homer's time, still it was the custom to produce
a jar of whiskey three times a day. Possibly the liquor of that time was too
cheap to be worth adulterating, and so was not so poisonous as the decoction of
fusel-oil and strychnine now sold as ''liquor/' Perhaps too those days of
harder and more unremitting labour required or excused a stimulant which now
can be more easily dispensed with. There were, besides the more well-to-do
settlers on " The Plains," several though not many poor families, whose hus-
bands and sons would hire out for daily work at Gait when they were not
able to procure it in South Dumfries. When at Gait they would, as each Satur-
day brought the week's pay, construct a raft, put a week's supply of food
thereon, and launching it on the Grand River, float down to their home on " The
PIain«i." Of this class were Messrs. Holding and Godfrey, already mentioned as
Hugh Workman
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP. 465
being members df the strange sect of Christ-ians. These families subsequently
left " The Plains" for Qalt, where they sustained sad loss by the cholera of 1835.
The social progress of " The Plains " kept pace with its industrial gains. At
first, as in all new settlements, the girk and boys wore the homely dresses of
pioneer life. By degrees bits of store- purchased finery appeared at the Sabbath
meeting, at the quilting bee, or the apple-paring. The mysteries of the quilt-
ing bee were for the ladies only ; the material which was to form the ground-
work of the quilt was stretched on a frame over a long table; the girls sat round
and with patient skill worked in the intricate and often beautiful pattern.
But when the evening shades descended and tea was prepared, with the pies
and hot biscuits arrived a select body of the farmers' sons, any one of them
sure to make a good husband to any one of these industrious young needle-
women. At the ** apple-paring " both sexes assisted; the young men pared the
once " forbidden " fruit, the feminine fingers performed the more delicate task
of extracting the core and stringing the sections of fruit to form the '* apple
sass " of the coming winter. At six o'clock came tea, not the languid ** axter-
noon tea " of fashionable life, but a genuine substantial meal of boiled pork,
hot and cold, of bowls of berries big enough for a. giant, and pies huge as cir-
cular saws. When ample justice had been done to these good things by young
ladies who had the courage of their appetites, and by young men who did not
share the late Lord Byron's opinion that a pretty woman never looks pretty
when eating, then came on the grand event of the evening, the *' final cause,
to use metaphysical language, of the " apple-paring," as of the " quilting " and
every other " bee." The room was cleared ; a neighbour, generaUy weU up in
years and always a Scotchman, produced a well-worn but not unserviceable
fiddle. A quadrille was played and danced— glanced most emphatically, not
walked through in the fashionable fainearU style, but every step conscien-
tiously performed in time to the music. To this succeeded faster dances ; the
whirl of the waltz, the rush of the galop, the thump of the polka. At twelve
came supper, a glass of wine for the ladies, and a moderate " horn " of a fluid
which then cost but eighteen cents a gallon for the boy& Then a merry drive
home over the moonlit snow or under the summer treea
The first marriage that took place in anything like the grand style among
the denizens of " The Plains" was that of the eldest daughter of Mr. Latshaw,
one of the oldest and most influential settlers, who was with all due observance
and ceremonial united to Mr. Spotiswood. The bride wore a tasteful wedding
dress, no home-made article, but the genuine work of the Worth of the period
at Gait ; it was of white merino, with glittering trimnung of lustrous satin, and
sheen of pearls on the neck. On her head was a veil of r^ lace, in place of the
homely white cap which the country-bred bride of " The Plains *' had been wont
to content herself with. The wedding over, the new married pair, thus welded
into one, set the unexampled precedent of going on a wedding tour. For
hitherto a wedding had been a matter of great simplicity. The ceremony was
performed at the house of the bride's father, or if that was not large enough to
accommodate the expected guests, at the nearest hotel — (in those days the
country hotels were invariably provided with a large hall suitable for dancing
parties). Instead of prudishly retreating, the bride presided at the feast, cut
the wedding cake, always of home manufacture, and a great deal more whole-
27
456 HiSTOBT or brant county.
some for that reason, and was the merriest and most active in the dance that
continued on those occasions till the small hours.
The earliest interments in the churchyard of ** The Plains " Church were
those of old Mr. Bums and of Mr. Mans, Senr. For some time after the first
settlement of " The Plains/' it had been the custom to bury the dead in a
portion of the farm set apart for the purpose. Of course, as the ancient
Soman dvil law does not prevail in Canada — the law which ordained that any
spot of ground in which human remains were buried should remain consecrated
from all secular use whatever — ^it was felt that such places of burial gave no
security against that desecration of the last resting places of the dead against
which the human mind, even such a mind as Shakespeare's, naturally rebels.*
At the present day old settlers tell us of forgotten graves on farms that have
long passed out of the hands of those interested in the persons buried there,
and sure sooner or later to be broken up by the ploughshare. This insecurity
beaame felt, and soon Mr. Mans, the universal benefactor and promoter of every
good work on "The Plains," deeded an acre of land for a burial ground, to
which some time afterwards a public subscription added half an acre moreL
For physic and for theology " The Plains " were dependent on Paris. Dr.
McCosh, the oldest practitioner of that town, used to enter the house of sick-
ness with the aid of his cork leg ; a truly and deservedly beloved physician,
who has presided at the entrance into life of most of the present generation of
*' The Plains."
It remains to record the political history of this part of Brant County.
As has been mentioned, "The Plains" were mainly settled by Scotchmen,
who, whether from that circumstance or not, were as hard-headed, common-
sense, and independent a set of men as could be found at that day in English-
speaking Canada. The State Church interest and the Family Compact had
no link of connection with " The Plains," since " Church people" (in Bishop
Strachan's sense) there were none, and the only representatives of the Family
Compact Conservatism in this neighbourhood, Mr. Dickson and Mr. Shade,
though both liked and respected, were not on anything like visiting terms with
any &mily except that of Mr. Mans'. For several years since the settlement
began to emerge from its backward struggle into something like prosperity,
WUliam Lyon Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate and Mr.Francis Hincka' JSocamiTher
had taught men to think on the wrong done to the people of west Canada by
being compelled to support an alien Church, and by being denied Besponsible
Qovemment These were the two chief grievances which the so-Cidled
** Bebellion " of 1837 was intended to suppress, and, as a matter of fact, though
not exactly in the way its promoters designed, did suppress.
In 1833 William Lyon Mackenzie addressed a large popular gathering at Galt^
when most of " The Plaias " men attended, with the exception of the families of
Mans and Lapierre, who were on the opposite side in politics. With the two
exceptions above mentioned, and the families of Nelles, Ames and Sales, all the
farmers of this district were on the side of Reform, of which, over the heads of
■ •^—^—'—^—^-^—^-'^ ' ■ t ~^~^~ II
* See Shftkeepeece'e epitaph, oompoeed by himaelf lor his tomhetone al the Chsieh of StnitiMd*
od-Atod:
*' Bleet be he who sperei theie stones.
And oorst be he who moTos these bones."
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSmP. 457
more cautious men like Bobert Baldwin and Francis Hincks, Mackenzie and one
other, yet better known and loved iu South Dumfries^ were the recognized
leaders.
Dr. Duncombe had long been in medical practice in this part of Canada.
His political career and position as a leader present a striking parallel
to those of Dr. Wolf red Nelson, the insurgent leader of Lower Canada in 1837.
Both of these remarkable men had been for years distinguished by success in
the practice of their profession, and by the kindness with which they applied
its resources to the relief of their poorer neighbours. Of Dr. Duncombe we
find that thqse who knew him best in his life as a country physician speak
most warmly of his great goodness of heart. " He was a fine man, and had a
feeling heart for the poor," said one old farmer ; *' whenever he could do a body
a good turn, he was the man to do it." In numberless cases he gave physic as
well as advice without a fee, and he seems to have been looked up to as a
source of help and advice through more than one county in the neighbourhood
of Norfolk. We have examined with care his excellent portrait at the
hospitable house of his daughter, Mrs. Tufiord, of Paris. The face is an intel-
lectual one, with a keen, mobile and excitable expression ; a high and com-
manding brow, and lips denoting firmness and resolution. It is the face of no
ordinary man. After living among his country neighbours for years as their
most reliable friend and benefactor, it is no wonder that they induced him to
become their representative in the Legislature. Once a member of that body,
and seeing the utterly hopeless nature of its struggle for the constitutional
rights which it was the intention of the mother country should be exeitsised,
aU that was most generous, all that was most manly, in Dr. Duncombe's nature
onlisted him on the side of the patriot Opposition. Among these were leaders
whose eloquence, integrity and powers of organization have not been surpassed,
if ^quailed, by the two generations of Canadian st&tesmen who have succeeded
to William Lyon Mackenzie and his compeers. In the foremost place among
them Dr. Duncombe took rank, and through the Counties of Brant and Oxford
especially he became the recognised exponent of the policy of those who were
strutting a^inst wind and tide to gain the haven of constitutional Reform
and ^sponsible Government. He was a speaker of marked power in Parlia-
ment and elsewhere ; his voice, though not strong, had a clearness and distinct-
ness that enabled him to be heard over every part of a large open-air gathering.
If we can judge from the testimony of a large number of those who knew him
best in the district of which we are writing, he was, both as a man and as an
orator, gifted with singular magnetism, one whom it was impossible to know
withont loving.
It was by no means the intention of Dr. Duncombe to precipitate the insur-
rection of 1837. Still he was convinced that the time had come when the only
ehance of arousing the attention of the English Government to the t3rranny of
Canadian misgovemment was an appeal to arms against the Family Compact
Nothing more opposed to English Liberal ideas, to the spirit of English consti-
tutional government since the Sevolution, can be conceived than the petty
^lespotism which then misruled Canada. It was the extravagance, the favour-
itism, the despotic government of the Stewart tyrants, carried out for the benefit
of a clique of imitation-prelates, half-pay officers and high-life-below-stairs
458 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
aristocracy. Strachan, the Canadian Laud, was balanced by Draper, the Cana-
dian Jeffries, and Francis Bond Head, who may be left to balance the sentence
as the Canadian Stratford, minus Stratford's splendid intellectual endowments,
power of rule and personsd couraga The story of 1837 has been told elsewhere
in this volume, hence we have but to point out that almost every family of any
note on ** The Plains " of South Dumfries thoroughly sympathized with the aims
of Dr. Duncombe, and shared his confidence. It will be remembered that
exception is made of the two leading families of Mans and Lapierre.
Of all who supported the cause of Reform none were more popular than Mr.
Hill, one of the earliest settlers on ** The Plains." Many stories are told of his
merry sayings and stories. His son, a young man of twenty-five, was enthusi-
tically attached to Duncombe and the national cause. One day in December,
1837, a renegade to the cause named Mathews (in no way relat^ to the martyr
of the same name who suffered death in Toronto at the hands of the Family
Compact), with a characteristic desire to make mischief, brought a garbled
account of Mackenzie's unsuccessful attempt on Toronto, and the news spread
like wildfire over '' The Plains *' that the leader of the cause had taken the capitaL
Toung Hill at once convened a meeting for the purpose of organizing a force
of Auxiliary National Volunteers at the house of Mr. Stockton, on the town
line of Blenheim and South Dumfries. A crowded meeting was held ; Mr.
Stockton, as chairman, addressed them ; and then it was resolved to arm at
once and be in readiness to join whatever force Duncombe might gather around
him in order to march on Toronto. The only step, however, that was carried
out, and that but partially, was the disarming of some of the more prominent
Tories. When news came of the miscarriage of Mackenzie's move on the capital,
Duncombe of course gave up all thought of a local insurrection. He might,
had he said the word, have surrounded himself with a force which might hav^
gained temporary successes, like those won by Dr. Wolf red Nelson at St Denis
over Colonel Gore and his soldiers, but in the end, as Duncombe well foresaw,
a similar ruin would have overwhelmed the families and farms of the Reformers
of South Dumfries. With the aid of faithful friends Duncombe, who had now
committed himself too deepl)*, and was too obnoxious by his talents and his
virtues to be allowed to escape the scaffold, made his way to the inviolable
asylum of the American Republic. Of his followers in South Dumfries only
young Hill suffered severely for having shown the courage of his opinions.
This virtuous and true-hearted young man was imprisoned in the Kingston
Penitentiary, where, worn out with insufficient food and hard usage, he died.
Glenmorris.
The picturesque and thriving Village of Glenmorris was founded in the year
1848 by Samuel Latshaw, of whom mention has already been made as one of
the earnest and most energetic of the settlers in South Dumfries, and as one
of the staunchest Reformers and supporters of William Lyon Mackenzie ; also
as the man who, at the peril of his own life, during the height of the Family
Compact terror, endeavoured to shield Samuel Lount from his doom. The
ground was arranged in accordance with a survey by Mr. D. P. Ball, Ptovin-
dal Land Surveyor for Upper Canada. The first store, a general warehouse
BOUTH BUMFBIBS TOWNSHIP. 459
of the usual pioneer merchandise, had heen opened as early as 1845 by Bobert
Shiel, who aUo opened the first hotel a few months afterwards. John Darwin
had taken advantage of the water privilege to put up a saw-mill in 1831.
The first church was erected for the use of the Pi^sbyterian denomination in
1849 ; the ground for the site, as well as liberal contributions towards the cost
of building, were given by Samuel Latshaw, who also deeded four acres of valu-
able land to form a glebe, on which a commodious and elegant dwelling house
was erected as a manse for the pastor's residence. The total cost of building
the church was S2,000. The congregation came mainly from the region of
South Dumfries north of " The Plains."
The village is prettily situated in a valley surrounded by an anf^hitheatre
of wooded hills. It is distant from Paris si^ miles, from Brantford twelve
miles, from Gait six miles. A daily stage connects it with the last named
placa Situated in the midst of a fine farming country, this village is quite a
business centre for the northern region of South Dumfries Township. It has
an active and enterprising population, and though it has not grown with the
rapidity of Paris, is quite likely to become an important place. In 1851 Glen-
morris was made a post village, the first Postmaster bein? Robert Shiel. In
1854 George Herbert built the first grist-mill ; and in 1857 was founded the
distillery of Robert Wallaca The smallest of the South DumWes villages is
Harnsburg, built on the small stream called Fairchild's Greek, at the south-
east corner of the township ; it is a junction station of the Great Western
Railway, with its branches to Brantford, and Wellington, Grey and Bruce. It
is eight miles from Brantford, ten miles from Paris, and three from St. George.
It has four hotels and a few thriving stores. The Methodist Church at Harris-
burg was built in 1859, and cost Sl,500. The village dates from 1853, when it
was laid out by A. N. Vrooman. The chief business done there is connected
with the railway.
St. George.
The important Village of St. George is situated in the south-east section of
South Dumfries Township, about ten miles west of the east line. It is a station
on the Great Western Railway, the distance from St George to Brantford being
nine miles, to Gait nine miles, to Harrisburg three. The St. Greorge district
was one of the earliest settled in South Dumfries, the excellent quality of the
soil having attracted settlers even before Mr. Dickson purchased the township.
The first house in St. George was built by Mr. Obed Wilson, on Lot No. 7,
near where now stands the Methodist Church ; he came, the pioneer settler, in
1814 ; Messrs. Connors and Dayton put up log houses in 1815 ; Isaac Shaver
and John Brickberry arrived in 1816 ; David VanEvery and J. Fawkes came in
1817. Next year John Pettit erected a distillery, the firewater manufactured
in which was sold, and found a very ready sale in those unsophisticated days,
when the voice of J. B. Gough and D. I. K. Rine had not yet been heard in the
land, and when it was not uncommon, if any extra work was being done, to set
a barrel of whiskey by the roadside, with a tin cup for who so would to fill and
^mpty. John Pettit's whiskey cost but eighteen cents the gallon. Christopher,
Michael and Hennr Muma, arrived in 1819, each of them taking up land for
a farm. John Phillips put up a grist-mill in 1817, on the third concession, Lot
460 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
No. 4; E. Mainwaring purchased his farm in 1821 ; Henry Gardiner, in 182?,
erected the lirst saw-mill, on the second concession, Lot No. 6. The first stor^
was as usnal for general merchandise, the red herrings elbowing the tobacco pings,
and barrels of pork contending for room with bales of dry goods ; it was, like
all the other buildings in St George at that time, a log structure, and was carried
on by Mr. Henry Moc. In those jovial days, even a dry goods store was not
dry ! A keg of whiskey stood under the counter, from which customers wer&
treated, and the good farmers and their wives encouraged to spend their monej
liberaUy.
As early as 1823 the first school was built, it too being of logs. The first
teacher was a Mr. Lowe. As a successful instructor of youth this gentleman
was above the average, at a time when no school system had as yet oeen fully
organized, and when good teachers were few ana far between. Mr. Edward
Kitchen settled in the village in 1823, Mr. Robert Snowball in 1833, and Mr.
David Beid in the following year. Mr. D. Baptie, Townsliip Clerk, arrived in
St George in 1847. In 1849 Mr. Gavin Fleming, afterwards the leading man
in the district and elected member of Parliament, came from Falkirk, in Soot-
land. Mr. Robert Christie, also one of the leading men, and who survived in
the healthy air of South Dumfries to the patriarchal age of ninety-seven, was
induced to leave his native home in Scotland by the account of the salubrious
climate and fertile soil of South Dumfries which he received from his friend,
the Hon. Adam Ferguson. He came to Canada in 1833, and finally settled in
the Township of South Dumfries in 1834 ; he resided on his property till 1861,
when he removed to his son's, the Hon. David Christie, late Speaker of the
Senate of Canada, where he resided till January, 1877, when he died full of
years and honours, for he had long held a high place in the estimation of the
public, both from his great abilities and high personal character. He was pro-
foundly attached to the church of his native Scotland, and was for many years
one of the supporters and chief pillars of the Presbyterian Church at St
George, of which he was an elder for thirty-five years. His venerable figure
might be seen Sabbath after Sabbath, whatever the weather, in his accustomed
place ; and so much was he devoted to the interests of the congregation at the
St George church, amid whom he had worshipped with such i^e(&onate rega--
larity for so manv years, that he would drive m the very latest years of his
good old age to that house of prayer.
The Village of St George can claim an honourable priority in securing the
religious services of a regmar ministry. The first missionaries who came to
this district were the Rev. Thomas Christie, brother of Mr. Robert Christie
and uncle of the Hon David Christie ; and the Rev. William Proudfoot, father
of the Rev. William Proudfoot, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at London,
and of the Honourable Yice-Chancellor Proudfoot, of Toronto. These mission-
aries were sent out in 1832 by the United Secession Presbyterian Church, to
whom our county is indebted for the inestimable services of two of the most
pious and successful of her pastors. They were welcomed by the worthy
Scotch settlers of South Dumfries, and alternately held services once a fort-
night, for some time using for the purpose a school house on the farm of Mr.
Kitchen, a short distance to the westward of St Greorge. This arrangement
continued for two years, Mr. Thomas Christie alternately preaching at St
SOXJTH DX7MFRIES TOWNSHIP. 461
George and at West Flamboro\ where he resided, and where there was a
laige congr^ation of Presbyterians. As at that early time the roads, as they
were called by courtesy, were little better than bridle-paths through the
woods, it was Mr. David Christie's custom to fetch his uncle from West Flam-
boro'y leading a spare horse for the clergyman's use. Then through the Sabbath
silence of the woods they rode, intent on the highest of all human duties. The
road known as the '' Governor's Hoad " was then only a narrow path, with scarce
room for a single horseman. But soon, in 1834, a frame church was erected
under contract by Mr. Asa Wolverton, of Paris. Gait excepted, the congrega-
tion which worshipped at this church in St. George, was tne first which was
regularly organized in Dumfries. As has been mentioned, the Scotch farmers
north of '' The Plains " resorted to St. George on the Sabbath, and the habit of
doing so continues to this day. When the ministrations of the Kev. Thomas
Christie were called for elsewhere, and when he had seen everything duly
oi^nized '' decently and in order," the congregation, acting under Mr. Christie's
advice, gave a call to the Rev. James Roy, who in due course was then ordained
to the charge of the Presbyterian Church at St. George in December, 1838.
The Yilk^e of St. George is the largest in the Township of South Dumfries,
and being far larger than Glenmorris, is the most important industrial centre
next to the Town of Paris. Its position on the railway has of course aided
its growth, and it also has a central relation to one of the richest agricultuial
districts of the township. So much was this acknowledged throughout Dum-
fries that when, in August, 1839, it was thought advisable to embody the Dum-
fries Agricultural Society, by the ninth of its twenty-two rules provision was
made that the Agricultural Society's Show should be held the first year in the
Town of Ghilt, the second year in the Town of Paris, and the third again in
Gait, but the fourth year in St. George. Thus it would be held in Gait every
alternate year, and successively in St. George and Paris in the intervening
years. Of this society the results on the agriculture of the whole township
have proved most valuable in leading to improved methods, machinery and
stock. Its establishment may truly be said to march oq even in the farming
of both Townships of Dumfries.
The first office-bearers of the Dumfries Agricultural Society were as foUows:
President, Mr. William Dickson ; Vice-Presidents, Mr. David Buchanan, Mr.
Absalom Shade ; Treasurer, Mr. iEueas B. Gordon ; Secretary, Mr. John MiUer.
The Directors were Messrs. John Thomson, Allan Henderson, John Telfer, Hiram
Capron, Robert Kirkwood, Daniel Macpherson, Robert Christie, Geoige Stanton,
David Elllis, John Gowinloch, John Mackenzie, Thomas Rich, Robert Ballingel,
H. y. S. Mans, John McNaught, William Brittain, James Geddes, and William
Batters. The social effects of the formation of this society so soon after the
troubles which, in 1837, had in so many instances set neighbour against neigh-
bour, were of the greatest value in bringing back a happier time. Men of such
opposite politics as Absalom Shade or H. V. S. Mans and Hiram Capron were
brought together on the safe ground of a non-political topic, yet one which
honest men of both parties must rejoice to further for the benefit of their
common country. Tet it is not the least indicative si^n how all men were then
"treading on the fires smouldering beneath the treacherous ashes," to read in
the last rule adopted by the society, the following : " Politics shall be carefully
462 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
excluded at any meeting of the society, whether general or of committee, on
pain of the expulsion of the member who shall attempt to introduce the same."
It will be gathered from what has been written tnat Methodism cannot in
this section of Dumfries claim what it can justly claim nearly everywhere else
in Upper Canada, the honour of having been the pioneer Church. But in
1869 the Methodist denomination in St. George found themselves sufficiently
strong to organize a church. A handsome Qothic building was then erected as
their place of worship, at a cost of $10,000 ; it is both an ornament to the
village and a credit to the not very large congregation. The Baptist Church
numbers a good many adherents among the Sootch settlers in Dumfries. The
first Baptist Society in St. George was origanized in 1824, under the pastorate
of the Bev. Simon Maybee, whose clerical ministrations continued till 1828. In
1858 the Baptist congregation had gained sufficient strength to afford building
a church. In that year accordingly a neat stone church was built at a cost (S
$4,500,^ with seating capacity for three himdred. In St. George, as in most
other places of any enterprise in our country, the evil of divergent opini ons in
religion, minimized as it is by the strong spirit of toleration that results from
the absence of any State Church, is almost compensated for by the picturesque
effect of so many churches in the same village and in various types of archi-
tecture. As a rule, our village churches in this Province are not what experts
in Gothic would call the pure, unmixed mediseval art. But it must be remem-
bered that in Canada we have no one historic church ; we are in accordance, it
may be said truly, with the age we live in, very tolerant and very eclectic ;
and besides, Gothic, in its purity and unmodified, is really not suited to our
climate, which for half the year, as Mr. Gold win Smith said in the Bystamder, is
positively Arctic Those projecting ornaments of roof, spire and buttress, how-
ever well they may suit a damp climate like that of England, with us become
so many snowtraps to accumulate avalanches. Those high open roofs, besides
being mazes where sound is lost, become vast receptacles into which heat
ascends, leaving the chilly air in the cold regions where the congregation sit,
and where the faint winter sun rays are caught and coloured by the dismally
'' dim religious light " of the stained glass in the nearly alf^ays too small lancet
windows of correct " first pointed " Gothic.
TOWN OF PARIS. 463
TOWN OF PARIS.
The European Paris — as its Latin name, Lutetia Paridiorum, imports — was
named from mud ; the Canadian Paris was named from gypsuTn, The original
name of the village, which is now one of the most flourishing as well as
picturesque towns in Canada, was " The Forks of the Grand River, a cumbrous
heading to a letter, as Mr. Hiram Capron observed. He called a public meet-
ing, and proposed that as so much plaster of Paris was found in their
neighbouihood, they should adopt the somewhat ambitious but characteristic
and suitable name of Paris. And, with consent of the proper authorities, this
was done, and "King" Capron, as this gentleman was humorously styled,
thus became godfather of the town as well as father of the settlement. The
proverb about a prophet being without honour in his own country applies to
the country as well as the prophet. One's own country is generally without
honour, as far as its natural beauty is concerned, with our own people. Few
were able to find out (until a Scotch nobleman who happened to visit the town
informed them of the fact) the great natural beauties of Paris. Even in winter,
when everything is subdued with a ghastly monochrome of white ; when the
river is floored with marble and the hills are miniature Alps ; when the last
red leaf skates on the frozen snow, and the huge icicles hang like so manv
swords of Damocles from the house roofs ;^-even then Paris is beautiful. Still
more so in the faint early spring, when river and rapids have burst their
barrier of ice-stalactites, and the green-grey tides from Nith and Grand River
hurry their confluent waters against the opposing ice-fields. But in summer,
when the stream of molten snow is blue in its first purity, or topaz-yellow as
it hurries over shelving rocks, is the time to climb to the summit ot the hill
above the Upper Town and look down on the panorama below. Then the Nith,
as ambitious in its impetuosity though inferior in majesty to the noble stream
it is about to join, sweeps in a semicircle round the Lower Town. Its naiads
do *not disdain to minister to human industry, and their waters do yeoman
service to Mr. Penman's Mills, which are a conspicuous feature of the far
distance to the noith-west. There lies the town straggling away to the north
towards the Great Western Railway Station, and nearer, resolving itself into
the three leading streets, which almost converge from the north to the south.
Yonder the well-known yellow *bus is carrying the expectant pleasure-seekers,
and the keen and companionable commercial traveller, to that excellent hostelry,
the Bradford House.
The main street. Grand River Street, is gay with stores, glittering and bright
coloured, to attract that sex to whom shopping is the best substitute for Para-
dise. There is the tower of the Congregational Church, the pinnacle of the
Methodist Templa Beyond the town rises another hill, but less lofty than
that at the southern end, on the top of which is the classic mansion of the
464 BISTORT OF BBANT COUmTT.
late Mr. Hamilton, and the stone homestead which witnessed the many saieties
and hospitalities of the late Mr. Hiram Capron. We descend the heimt, and
stand on the bridge leading from the Upper Town to the flats beyond Beneath
ns sweeps, dark in the shadows, sapphire-clear in the lights, the broad, shallow
water of the Grand River. Aboat half a mile to the north-east is. the bridge
from the Lower Town ; between this and the one on which we stand is a row of
several large blocks of buildings, the factories which have made Paris what it
now is. &yond the Lower Town bridge is the railway bridge, a much higher
one, crossing from side to side of the northern hill. It is raised on massive
stone pillars, and the train moves slowly and carefully over it. Still the height
is fearful, and as one looks, one is apt to remember how on one occasion, when
a freight train was passing, the last car broke loose and plunged over the
fenceless verge into the abyss below. Fortunately no one was on board of that
car.
It is noon ; whistles scream from the factories and a bell rings from the
Town HalL There pours forth from each industrial hive a stream of employees,,
young men and young women, each stream, however, keeping apart, as Uiose of
the Ottawa and St. Lawrence do at their junction.
This town is beautiful from every point. As we walk towards the railway
bridge, past the great factory buildings, we see the Upper Town, with the spire
of the Church of the Sacred Heart and the stately tower of the Town Hall
Many a neat villa residence nestles among the trees ; at the very edge of the
steep hill-side is a row of buildings, out of repair, but not unpicturesque ; and
opposite, the rush and roar of the Nith, swollen with the spring fieshets. We
pass the bridge leading from the flats to the Lower Town, and are within close
view of the railway bridge. It spans a space of seven hundred and eighty feet,,
and the railway track at its summit is ninety feet above the river. It is built
of iron and wood-work, on the "Howe truss" principle. There are one hundred
and forty feet distance between each of ite pillars of massive stone. It was
built by Mr. Farrell, from the plans of a Mr. Wallace, of BufiieJo. B}' one of
those exceptional escapes which sometimes occur to baffle the common sense of
experience, the builder, Mr. Farrell, while walking on the summit, lost his
footing and fell ninety feet down into the river, and, except for a few days'
confinement, was unharmed.
The Grand River, now so harmless as it ripples over its pebbly beach, was very
different during the spring f reshete of thirty years ago. Then the water was so
high that rafts of pine lumber were floated down to the Paris saw-mills. It
was customary also to cany down in scows the gypsum from the upper beds to
the landing place at the Nith, where it was conveyed by ox-teams to the
plaster mill kept by Mr. Hamilton, a little further west The only bridges then
used were of wood, and were not unfrequently carried away. A story illustrating-
the inconveniences suffered in these days is given in Mr. Young's amusing
'* Reminiscences." Mr. Walter Capron has told us of a scene he witnessed when,
one spring day, a number of people returning to their homes across the river
found the bridge swept away ; there was no bridge nearer than Gralt ! Mr,
Hiram Capron and his family were from home, so that his brother was able to
accommodate the whole party for the night in that house so well known for its
hospitality. They passed the evening telling stories, the Scotoh and Irish feomers
TOWN OF PARIS. 465
by tarns attempting to make jokes against each other's nationality. Various
were the expedients resorted to for crossing the river ; a single plank bridge
gave a perilous pathway over the Nith if there was a freshet ; at other times
there was a ford where is now the bridge to Lower Town. The Grand River
was crossed by a rope on which a basket was slung, in which the passenger
placed himself and was drawn by another rope to the opposite bank, but this
method fell into disrepute on account of an accident that took place in the
spring of 1837. The waters of the Qrand River were more than usually flooded
and fierce, as they swept round the bridgeless Lower Town peninsula. A Mr.
Torrance, father of a citizen now a resident on Grand River Street, was crossing^
in the basket as usual to the eastern shore. About midway the basket slipped,
and trying in vain to cling to the swaying rope, Mr. Torrance was swept away
by the flood. He was never seen again.
On both sides of the Grand River, especially on the east side about a mile
from the town, are almost inexhaustible deposits of gypsum. These are worked
at considerable expense and labour, when the bed of gypsum is not, as it some-
times is, near the surface of the soil. The work is carried on in subterranean
galleries, through whose dim arches of clay the miners burrow.
By the river bank are found also bituminous shales, from which may be ex-
tracted a fairly good gas for the purpose of lighting street lamps. It were
devoutly to be wished that these natural products could be utilized, so that the
" streets of Paris " might have some better illumination than that of the oil
lamps, few and far between, that now make " darkness visible." Here too are
subterranean springs, whose waters derive, from the limestone doubtless through
which they flow, the power of petrifying the leaves and mosses which they
touch. It is curious to examine these nineteenth century fossils ; every fibre of
the leaf cells, every delicate filament of moss, accurately traced in stone with a
grace no graver's tool could imitata Paris has, as we have tried to point out,
CTeat natural beauty, but it is essentially the beauty of inland scenery ; there
IS nothing wild or majestic ; the hills that rise, as if close to it, above the main
street of the Lower Town^ are just high enough and steep enough to look pictur-
esque ; the river no longer a ton*ent, has the Wordsworthian charm of quiet, as-
we watch
" These waters, rolling from their moimtftiii-spriDgs,
With a soft inland marmor. **
But the whole scene is well put together ; town and country, shop and sylvan
attractions, are blended ; the visitor can hardly fail to recollect Paris as a pretty
town, where the rivers run uphill (as a fact, they do run from the Lower Town
to the Upper) ; where the people are so Liberal that thev become Conservative
in their Liberalism ; and where the chief inhabitants make their bread off plaster
of Paris.
The central figure in the early history of Paris is tjhat of its founder, foster-
father and first Reeve, Hiram Capron. Those few who remember him in the
prime of his vigorous manhood recall his erect figure, dark brown hair, keen,^
observant^ yet not unkindly-looking eyes, curt speech and frequent jest To
most of the Paris friends who have given us the advantage of their recollections
of Mr. Capron, he appears as an old man, still vigorous, with wbite hair, and
compelled by rheumatic' contraction of the sinews, which had almost dislocated
466 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
the head of the femur from its socket, to hobble about by aid of two stout
sticks. But in manhood or old age he is remembered by all as keen, shrewd,
generous, under a mask of reserve. A favourite form of wit with him was that
which the Greeks used to call " unexpected effect" Thus when one of the
** squatters " on his land — a class of settlers, be it remarked, to whom few land-
owners are as lenient as he was — came to ask for a bag of flour oh credit, Mr.
Capron at first sternly refused; then, just as the dejected applicant was pasaing
through the gate, he was called back and told that his request was granted.
Mr. Mias Conklin, now living at Paris in his eighty-second year, knew Mr.
Capron more intimately and at an earlier period than any survivor of the elder
generation. He has told us numerous traits of his beneficence. He was ever
ready to help others ; in more than one instance, when a settler came to pay
him the instalment of purchase money due for his farm, Mr. Capron told him
to keep the money and invest it in farm-tools or stock. He was to the settle-
ment what Pope's imaginary philanthropist was to his native town — the Man
of Ross translated into the realities of Canadian pioneer life.
Bom at Leicester, Vermont, Feb. 12th, 1796, he came of a stock settled in
Vermont — ^industrious, long-headed farmers ; strong of hand and limb, and able
to turn that strength to account in many ways. In 1822 he left Vermont for
Canada, where he joined Mr. Joseph VanNorman in working a mine for
manufacturing iron from the " bog-ore'* found in the swamps of the mainland
opposite Long Point on Lake Erie. It was hard work, in an unhealthy neigh-
bourhood, and probably caused the germs of the rheumatism which crippled him
in his latter years. But young Capron made money, and on May 7th, 1828, sold
out to VanNorman his share of the Long Point Blast Furnace, and visiting the
Forks of the Grand River in 1829, bought a property of 1,000 acres from Mr.
William Holmes. He then began to dear and cultivate his land, which in-
cluded nearly all the present site of Paris. In 1829 Mr. Capron hired a Mr.
Cushman, who among many other avocations was a skilful millwright, to btdld
a mill. This was done speedily, the mill having two run of stones, one for
grinding grain, the other for plaster. It stood on the River Nith a little way
from the junction of that river with the Grand River. We may remark in pass-
ing that the origin of the name Nith is Scotch, its other name, now happily
discarded, as the Scotch name saves the vulgarity of " Smith's Creek," is &om
a settler whose farm was on the Nith, a little north of Paris. Mr. Capron
built a flour mill on this stream in 1832. Cushman recommended to Mr.
Capron, as a fit person to manage the mill and act as foreman to the labourers
hired to do Mr. Capron's work on the estate, a young American named Chas.
Conklin, whom he had knownatthesmall village which is now theCity of Buffala
Conklin was engaged at what was then considered the very high wages of S16 a
month, with board. He had lived for a time in the service of a wealthy English
gentleman who lived in Old World styla When young Conklin entered Mr.
Capron's house he expected that a man of such large property would dress
magnificently, and was speculating whether one of his duties would be to drive
his master's carriage to church, when to his surprise he found himself grasped
l)y the hand of a brisk-looking Yankee fai:iner, and heartily welcomed as 'Hhe
new boss." Mr. Conklin, like many another temperate man, had a somewhat
red face, and Hiram Capron observed to his wife, '' That youDg fellow punishes
TOWN OF PARIS. 467
the brandy bottle ; but never mind ; I keep no liquor, and we have no tavern
here." But soon afterwards, when a tavern was set up by Mr. VanEvery, and
Mr. Capron gave a house-warming, at which much strong drink was consumed,
he was astonished to observe that young Conklin did not drink, and would not
even smoke a cigar. On inquiry, learning that he was a total abstainer, he
found how unjust were his first impressions. Mr. Conklin had at the end of
1830, the date of his arrival here, rented the mill from Mr. Capron, and built a
saw-mill on the Nith, near the site of Mr. Finlayson's tannery. He threw
himself into business with great energ}*^ and success, digging and grinding
gypsum, making bricks, for which, as the settlement rapidly filled in, there was
great demand, and sawing the pine logs of goodly size and quality that were
floated down the Nith from the lumber-camps in we forests to the north. He
was making money, and cleared and built a house on what is now the site of
Grand River Street, close to the bridge. In 1833 he married Miss Laurie
Adams, whose home was near Buffido. He had to fetch his bride, along with
a heavy load of mill irons, and many other impedimenta^ all the way from
Buffalo, a distance of twenty-four miles, over the frozen lake and through woods
haunted by painted savages and howling wolves. In truth, in the times of
which we are writing, there were many impediments to over-hasty marriagea
The tyranny of the State Church, which was one of the causes, as we have else-
where shown, of the revolt of 1837, rigidly enforced a law which ordained that
none but Church of England ministers could solemnize a marriage. The mar-
riage monopoly in this part of Canada was held by the Rev. Mr. Luggard, who
lived a few miles out of Bi-antford. Now the law of marriage fees was that a
marriage solenmized at the parson's house cost only a dollar, whereas, if he was
called on to drive to any distance, the fee w^Jive dollars. Mr. Luggard accord-
ingly was urgent in inculcating on all whom it concerned that the orthodox
way to get married was to drive to a hotel in Brantfoid, where he would meet
and unite them, receiving in return the five dollars, supplemented by the " first
kiss," which was then one of the " benefits of clergy." But oftentimes the
bride was of an economical turn, like the wife of John Gilpin — ^who
*' Thouffh on pleasara she wa^ bent,
Had yet a frugal mind" —
and insisted on driving to the parsonage. This the reverend gentleman con-
sidered to partake of the nature of '' schism," or '' skism," as the great Bishop
Strachan used to pronounce it ; in fact, such marriages were immoral, and struck
at the root of all true religion. To mark his displeasure, he would only consent
to unite such couples in his woodshed, amid surroundings and odours anything
but suggestive ot sanctity and refinement. These woodshed weddings were
held in abomination, and the would-be brides of the settlement preferred to
drive over the boundary to the States. There the marriage, which of course
was perfectly valid here, was solemnized promptly enough. It was only going
to the nearest magistrate, who read the formula in ten minutea One runaway
pair — the bride had escaped from a three weeks' lock-up in her room by a stern
papa to join her love waitmg on the road hard by with his sleigh — went in haste
to a magistrate, who was asleep in bed, it being after midnight ; as the case
see med urgent, he sent for them to his room, and, leaning on his elbow, read the
468 msTOBT OF BRAirr county.
formula that made them man and wife. It is said that soon after they had
retired to rest at a hotel, the parent came thundering at the door, which he
threatened to break open, and only desisted on a counter threat of force being
met with force by his stalwart son-in-law. They were reconciled soon after,
and the bridegroom became a most successful Presbyterian minister. After two
years of happy married life Mr. Coukliu*s first wife died, a loss which so
depressed him that be left the Forks Settlement and bought a farm of two
hundred acres in South Dumfries. While there he married his present wife, Miss
Cornelia Hammond, daughter of a well known pioneer settler in Gralt, whose
name is mentioned in Mr. Young s ** Reminiscences " of that town. Late in
life he retired to Paris^ where, at his pretty cottage on the flats, we have
experienced his hoi^itality, and gathered from his conversation many of those
authentic materials for history which become lost when the generation whose
survivors alone can supply them has passed away. Mr. Conklin is now eighty-
two, his figure still upright and athletic, his dark brown hair only in part
turned grey. When Mr. Conklin first came to the settlement there was only
one log house in the Lower Town, which stood where now is the blacksmith
shop of Mr. Adamsi, of Grand Biver Street. There were two log houses in the
Upper Town, one that of Mr. Showers the elder, on the site of the Catholic
school house ; the other on the site of the Upper Town Presbyterian ChurciL
Two new buildings were then about to be finished in the Upper Town. When
that part of Paris was being planned Mr. Conklin s American friend, Cushman,
showed his sagacity by predicting that the town of the future would be on the
peninsula below. Cushman himself came to this part of Upper Canada, and
finally settled at Wilmut He was, however, one of those who attended the
fatal circus exhibition at Gait on July 28th, 1834, which first spread the pest
of Asiatic cholera. Cushman and all his household died the day after, except
one little boy, who brought the terrible news to Paris, whence Mr. Conklin and
several others accompanied him to the pest-stricken house, bravely resolved to
buiy their dead frieiula
From 1833 the settlement increased rapidly. In 1830 a shoe store had been
started in the Upper Town ; in the same year Robert Stewart's waggon shop,
and the tannery afterwards bought by Mr. Finlayson, who holds it, much
enlarged and improved, at the present day. James Barker started a black-
smith shop, H. T. Jackson uudeitook to make farm implements, and T. P. For-
syth was the first Parisian tailor. His widow lives in Paris still ; his daughter
is a teacher in a public school. Meanwhile the South Dumfries district near
Paris was being rapidly settled by the thrifty and industrious race of farmers
described in our history of that township, an event which of course aided the
development of trade at the " Forks of the Grand River." 1832 brought
another blacksmith, Samuel Heath, from the classic r^ions of Mudge Hollow.
An American, one of those pushing, independent, suoceed-at-any-price Yankees,
named Norman Hamilton, built a distillery just at the rear of where the
Windsor Hotel now stands. The whiskey must have been less vitriolified and
fusel-oiled than the "poison " of the present day, for it was common for boys
on their way to school to walk in, take a tin cup, hold it under the end of the
worm pipe, and drink. This, incredible as it seems, rests on what we believe
nndoubted evidence. The fire-water was sold at 18 cents a gallon, a tariff which
TOWN OF PARIS. 469
reminds one of that in the London gin houses of the seventeenth century men-
tioned by Macaulay in his ** History/' where there was a standingfadvertisement
inviting the public to " get drunk tor a penny or dead-drunk for two pence."
Mr. Hamilton was an able and amiable man ; he ccuried on buaiiiess also as a
pork dealer, and having made his fortune, gave up business and retired to his
handsome mansion on the hill north of the Lower Town. He left a widow
and daughter. At the same time Mr. Daniel Totten built on a small and coarse
scale the first woollen mill. Mr. Totten's industry and knowledge of finance
enabled him to gain a considerable fortune during the years of his life in Paris.
Several of his sons now hold high positions. In 183i Mr. VanEvery opened
the first hotel or " tavern,** as they were then called. He lived little more than
a year after this, and had the unenviable distinction of being the first settler to
occupy a lot in the new cemetery. He was brother to Mrs. Forsyth, already
referred to. About the same time Mr. Sovereign bought a farm south of the
Upper Town; the elder Mr.'0*N"eail, father of Mr. Thomas O'Neail the Mayor of
the current year, began farming with a small capital of six hundred doUars,
and Mr. Daniel settled near the Nith, in the present Lower Town ; his daughter
married Mr. Frazer, of Burford Township, where he still lives, in possession of
all his faculties, at the age of ninety-eight His wife is two years his junior.
Another old settler at " The Forks" is Mr. More, a Waterloo veteran, still living
at the Canadian Waterloo, at the age of a hundred and two. The patriarchal
simplicity of the manners of those days is well seen from the anecdote told us
by Mr. Conklin of his having brought back from Buffalo when he went there
to fetch home his bride, together with many other purchases, several kegs of
oysters, which he sold at Brantford, except one which Mr. Hiram Capron pur-
chased, and at once issued a decree that every man, woman and child should
oome to his house tor an cnrster supper. When all had feasted, enough oysters
were left to suffice Mr. Capron and several friends for dinner next day. Of
those who met at that feast besides Mr. Conklin, only two now survive, Mr.
Forsyth and Mr. Walter Capron, both at present resident in Paris.
The earliest teacher at " The Forks " was a lady from Toronto, who taught
at her own house. When, about 1834, Mr. Capron with characteristic liberality
bnilt the first school — it was en Biver Street, in the Upper Town, on the brow
of the hill — •* everyone," says an old settler^ " was as glad as folks nowadays
are when they have built their grand collegiate institutes and churches!'*
About this time Mr. Curtis introduced the first threshing machine. So the
settlement of Paris grew as the years went on, and manufacturers were
attracted bv the natural advantages of the locality. Mr. Hiram Capron's death
was genenuly felt, and the entire community followed his remains to the grave,
where he rests beneath a monument such as the founder and benefactor of
the town deserves. To him succeeded as influential public men, Mr. Finlayson,
Mr. Baird, and Mr. Whitlaw. Mr. Finlayson was for many years in Parlia^
ment for the North Riding of Brant All these gentlemen were successful
merchants, and at present represent the ipore modem phase of industrial
develooment at Paris. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War, Mr. Whitlaw
had held back his ffrain, when suddenly the war concluded, and the high prices
of grain collapsed, leaving Mr. Whitlaw in great difficulties. But he went to
the Bank and eandidlj told the true condition of affairs, but was assured that
470 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
snch was the confidence of the Bank in his integrity and skill, that they wooU
give him his own time and whatever assistance was required.
With these gentlemen may be classed the heads of the great manuf actoring
firms which have sprung up of late years, among whom may be mentioned Mr.
B. Capron, a gentleman who has inherited with his father's money not a little of
his genial and generous disposition. In writing this general sketch of the
history of Paris, and of the sketches of its commerce, church history, and
municipal institutions which follow, we have aimed to the best of our power at
originality and accuracy, and have sought among the elder folk who remember
the early days of the settlement, as well as the merchants and farm land-
owners of the present day, for those many small incidents and remimscences
which might enable us, by careful comparison and collation, to form a toler-
ably complete and just idea of men and events. We are indebted to Mr. Chas.
Conklin and Mr. Sovereign, to the venerable patriot, Mr. Tufford, and his wife,
the daughter of Dr. Duncombe, both for information and hospitality ; also to
Mr. Louis Lapierre, a gentleman on the other side in politics, the late Conser-
vative nominee for North Brant ; also to Mr. Powell, J.P., to Mr. Finlayson,
late MJP., and Mr. T. O'Neail, Mayor of the town ; to Mrs. Appleby, Messis.
John Eay, Chase, Roberts, Showers, to Dr. Dixon, and the Very Rev. Father
Dowling.
In this way scraps of information have been picked up and utilized of the
greatest value in writing local history. These if not collected and preserved
by historians appointed to the work by the publishers of such a literary enter-
prise as that of the present History of Brant County, would in the course of
ten or at most twenty years be irrecoverably lost
We shall now proceed in detail to examine the commercial and municipal his-
tory of Paris.
Paris may justly be styled the Manchester of Ontario. The combination of
exceptionally good water-privileges, with ready means of transportation by rail,
have caused a number of manufactories to spring up on the flats on the west
bank of the Grand River, and where the smaller but equally impetuous current
of the Nith borders the northern part of the town. These have become more
numerous and more flourishing during the five years of prosperity which the
Dominion has enjoyed since 1878. But the town of the tall chimneys has
not suffered, but has rather gained in picturesqueness by this industrial in-
vasion. Seen from the northern or southern height, the otherwise unattractive
flats on the opposite side of the Grand River b€KX)me a prominent in what
would without them be a somewhat tame feature in the Paris scenery, and a
line of huge square many-windowed stone buildings of graceful architecture,
quite unlike the unsightly and cumbrous style of building which usually charac-
terizes a manufactory. Standing on the bridge from the Upper Town across
the Grand River, it is pleasant to watch, as the evening star appears in the first
dusk, a fourfold tier of gas-lit windows burst forth from each of these palaces
of industry, starring with dancing lights the impetuous stream below. Ijie Old
World gave the New World a doubtful gift, fire-water : the more generous New
World in return gave the Old an inestimable boon, tobacco. But tobacco, like
man, requires education, and cannot attain its highest development in tiie
savage state ; it must be manufactured. Ou yonder hiU above tne junction of
Charles Jartis
TJtf. NL« mitc
PUBIX UBRlHy
TOWN OF PARIS. 473
the two rivers, a cloud of white vapour rises from a building on the heights.
It is the Paris Tobacco and Cigar Manufactory smoking its pipe of steam. This
industry was established in 1865 by two American citizens, who returned home
after the war when the present proprietor, Mr. N. P. Benning, who had been in
rtnership with Mr. Dickson for several years, undertook the business. In last
ptember the new branch of cigar-making was added. Fifteen hands are em-
ployed, several of them girls. As we enter we notice a paper on the outer door,
" Boys and girls wanted as strippers." This does not refer to any objectionable
circus performance, but to a process in the tobacco manufacture presently to be
described. We see first the dry tobacco leaf as it arrives in barrels from the
Southern Statea It is well moistened, and after a few hours taken to the
" stripping room," where a rapid movement from a practised hand completely
strips the leaf on both sides from the central stem. The leaf is smoothed out
across the performer's knee, and then another hand classifies the different leaves
according to their colour and weight; the finer qualities have a light gold
colour and are of the greatest weight. The outside wrapper is separately pre-
pared, and is moistened with a solution of gum-arabic and sugar. Then a
practised hand rolls the pieces of leaf which are to form the internal paii of
the cigar, wrapping around it the outside envelope. It is then put into a shap-
ing mould and the ends cut even, when after drying it is fit for use. We next
visit the rooms where plug tobacco is made ; it is imported from North Carolina,
and is prepared as is the cigar tobacco, the lighter coloured being chosen for the
most expensive brands. The stems from which the cigar tobacco has been
stripped are preserved and exported to Germany, where they are made into
snuff; those of the plug tobacco go to Wafetel The cigars and the " Royal
Navy Plugs " manufactured at Paris ar^ sent not only through Ontario, but to
British Columbia, to Montreal^ to Quebec, to Newfoundland, and to Manitoba.
We pass along the pleasant Old World street of the Upper Town across the
bridge, and crossing by a smaller bridge w)iere a rapid rush of water has been
drawn from the main stream for the use of the machinery in the various
factories, we enter a spacious and graceful building ; it is that of the Paris
Woollen Manufacturing Company, and is four stories high, with a central
tower. Cart's arrive with huge square bales like the travelling boxes of a
giantess. These have just arrived from the railway, and contain wool, the finest
from English Southdown and Scottish lambs. One of these is attached to a
chain dangling from a windlass above the topmost story. Rapidly it ascends
and is landed at the window ; another and another follows. We enter and are
shown first the raw material ; it is white and soft, but must undergo purification.
It is thoroughly soaked in water, and is then placed in a rapidly revolving
vessel, called a hydro-extractor, where the water is extracted by centrifugal
force. The Canadian wool is too coarse for the manufacture here carried on,
the only wool used from this country as yet being some from Lower Canada.
They import the Southdown, the Leicester and Cotswold, a fine lamb's wool
from Scotland, and some of excellent quality from the Cape of Qood Hope.
We next enter a room where a number of steel cylinders revolve one against
the other with a rapidity that scarce allows us to see the numerous small pin-
like teeth with which each is studded. Between these the wool is combed and
carded. To manage these machines requires skilled labour. The machines are
28
474 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
called " scribblers." The wool is now ready for the " spinning raules," which
we find at work in the next room, combining and twisting the carded wool into
threads which are wound around huge wooden spools of the shape of champagne
bottles. Nearly all of these were managed most deftly by the young lady
employees. Next in order are the knitting machines, which weave or rather net
the thread unwoven from the revolving bottle-shaped spools into the fabric used
for men's underclothing. This is rolled into bales, which are then cut to the
requisite length. Most of this work also is carried on by women. Each piece
is then carefully scanned for any holes left as sometimes occurs by the knitting
machine, and the defective part is mended by hand-work. It is then cut out
the requisite pattern and made up. The requisite work is done by a number of
sewing machines skilfully plied by young ladies, who are spared the fatigue of
working the machine with the foot, motive power being supplied by the steam-
engine. A fine kind of wool is used for the manufacture of clouds, scarfs and
woollen wraps. This is coloured of all manner of brilliant shades in the dyeing
room, red, purple, light turquoise-blue and topaz-yellow. The task of guiding
the weaving machine is one of great responsibility, as it requires no little taste
to direct the working oi the machine so that a graceful pattern may result. Many
of the clouds and scarfs thus manufactured are of great beauty — flight, delicate,
airy fabrics ; they are packed in neat boxes which are made at Berlin. Another
branch of this manufacture is that of those warm woollen-sleeved waistcoats
which are such useful preservatives against the cold of winter. The machinery
used in this establishment was imported irom England. It is worked both by
the water-power of the river and by a steam-engine of 100 horse-power. The
water-power at this western end of " the race " is not always to be depended
on, but often it saves the steam-engine to a considerable amount. A company
of those interested in these factories has purchased the water-power from the
Ker estate ; they are seven in number, Mr. Clay being one. This factory has
passed through several vicissitudes of ownerships. Mr, Clay has always been a
member of the firm. It was started in 1872 under the names of Messrs. Clay
& Beith, which partnership was dissolved after two years and a half, when Mr.
McCosh took Mr. Beith's place. To this arrangement succeeded the present
Paris Manufacturing Company, of which Messrs. Clay and fi. Capron are mem-
bers. There are al^ut a hundred and fifty employees, about half of whom are
women. The youngest age allowed for an employee of either sex is fifteen.
The adjoining factory to the north of this is that of the Canada Land
Plaster Company. Here is ground and preparad for agricultural use the gypsum
which is found in such £A>undance on the west bank of the Grand River,
and in the mine recently discovered in the hill forming the Upper Town. Gyp-
sum is, in chemical language, sulphate of lime, and must have been formed
from the limestone stratum in this locality by some force connected with the
geologic changes which the country has evidently undergone at a period
anterior to the glacial age. Gypsum is found in two forms, a greyish aggr^ate
of minute crystals, and a brilliantly white, resembling marble. The grey
gypsum is the best for the purpose of fertilizing land, and is only found at
Paris ; the white is found at Cayuga, and of a purer quality and in far greater
quantities in New Brunswick. The grey gypsum requires to be ground into a
minute powder, in order to be of use to the farmer. It is strewn over the field
TOWN OF PARIS. 475
as soon as the blades of the youug crop have shown themselves above thi^
ground Like all manures abounding in lime, gypsum acts beneficially on all
vegetable life, increasing the stem and foliage, and attracting moisture to the
plant to which its particles adhere. It has no virtue when incorporated with
the soil itself, but it greatly increases the fertilizing properties of manure by its
power of fixing ammonia. It is therefore of value whei^ sprinkled on dung
heaps and in stables. It is especially of use with those crops which consist in
part of sulphate of lime, such as clover and peas, and when sprinkled on the leaves
attracts moisture and ammonia. By its property of fixing ammonia it also, when
sprinkled daily over the stable floor, will do much to save the health of horses,
and to prevent lung and throat diseases, besides adding materially to the fer-
tilizing value of the stable manure. This gypsum mill is worked by water-
power. It turns out twenty-five thousand tons a year, of which six hundred
are bought by the farmers in the neighborhood. The farmers have found that
it pays them to use gypsum, and it is easy to tell at a glance what land has or
has not been thus fertilized. The white variety is also used to make the plaster
of Paris required for casts of statuary, and to a far greater extent, especially
in the United States, for the stucco plaster employed in building. As a fer-
tilizer it is exported all over Ontario, but is not sought after by the more Con-
servative agriculturists of Quebec. The first mill for manufacturing gypsum was
built in 1823 by Mr. William Holmes. From him it passed into the hands of
Thomas W. Coleman. It is now worked by Messrs. Gill, Allan & Co., of Paris.
The next factory is a large building with two wings stretching towards the
river, occupied by the foundry of David Maxwell & Uo., of Paris. Here, amid
the whir of innumerable wheels and a Cyclopean glow of furnaces, are manu-
factured some of those elaborate agricultural machines which are the glory of
modern farming, and are to the Old World sickle or flail what the Martini-
Henry rifle and Gratling gun are to the ancient flint-lock musket This factory
uses both steam and water power, and employs eighty men. It turns out
eighteen hundred reaping machines and six hundred "sulky rakes" eyery
year. These are sent to every part of the Dominion, especially of late to Mam-
toba. A considerable number have of late years been exported to Russia.
Next in order is the clothing factory of Messrs. Adams, Hackland & Co., a
large and handsome edifice very much the counterpart of that of the Paris
Manufacturing Company, already described. This business enterprise, estab-
lished in 1869, in 1874 passed into the hands of the present company. In
1873 their premises were completely destroyed by fire. They turn out $225,000
worth of men's underclothing yearly. The machinery is much the same as
that already describe^ at the Paris Manufacturing Company's factory, but the
knitting machines here are worthy of special attention. They are of two
kinds, the cylindrical and the horizontal. In either case a number of needles
with reverted points seize and intertwine the threads, weaving with marvellous
speed the material used for underclothing In cutting this out there are of
course a great many waste pieces. But all these are gathered up and sent to
be unpicked, and then rewoven into a new fabric which is called "shoddy,"
and is sold at a cheaper rate. It is as to material quite as good as the more
expensive fabric, but as the staple is much shorter, it will not of course last as
long. The machinery in this factory was procured partly from Andover,
476 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Massachusetts, and party from Gait The employees of this company are two
hundred, half of them girls. Both here and in the Paris Manufacturing Com-
pany's factory, the young women employed are highly spoken of both by the
respective firms and by the clergy of all denominations in Paris. Many of
them are of highly respectable families and connections, and all gentlemen who
have sisters or daughters must i^joice at such avenues to respectable employ-
ment being opened to women. Judging from appearances these young ladies
enjoy excellent health ; their duties are light, requiring more taste and delicacy
of touch than of actual woik. Both Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams informed us
that for certain departments they far prefer female work, which has a quick-
ness and grace not obtainable otherwise. This factory has a steam engine of
two hundred horse power, but also makes use of the water-power from the
" race." Whenever the water power is sufficient to work the machinery, the
steam engine, which is of the kind called automatic in its action, suspends
work of its own accord.
We next inspect the button factory of Alexander J. Walter & Co. The
buttons are made of two materials, vegetable ivory and mother-of-pearl. In
the former case we examine the raw material, a nut about the size of a wal-
nut. This is removed from its shell and sawed into discs by a keen-toothed
steam saw. These are sorted, and those of a size are placed together. Then
a machine punches- out a number of circular discs from each slice of the vege-
table ivory. These are then placed in the receptacle of a lathe, when they are
shaped and polished into the form of buttons. These are then pierced ready
for use. Thus it is that man, who, according to the sceptical science of modem
times, is but a descendant of the anthropoid ape, buttons the shirt and trousers
which constitute his regalia as sovereign of creation with the product of a tree
in which his monkey first cousins are still at play.
The mother-of-pearl buttons are punched and polished by a similar process
from the large mother-of-pearl shell found all over the coasts of East Africa and
India. We have often seen enormous shells of this kind, two or three feet
in diameter, on the coral beach of unknown and unvisited islands on the
Mozambique and Zanzibar coasts. Such shells are rich in mother-of-pearl,
several inches thick, and it may yet pay American merchants to import then?.
This firm was established in 1882 as Somerman & Walter, but in last
November its style and title were changed to A. J. Walter & Co. They employ
forty-six persons, thirteen of whom are girls. The latter exhibit great skill
and dexterity in the several processes entrusted to them, and their work is of
a kind which the firm consider indispensable. This factory sends its products
all over Canada, including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
We have now to visit Messrs. Brown & Co's. Nut Factory. Unlike the nuts
of vegetable ivory, these are made out of bar-iron ; this, the raw material
of the nut,is imported from the Midland Counties of England, when from being
in its rough state " pig iron," is converted by the operation of " puddling " into
bar iron. Each bar is heated white hot in a furnace ; it is then put into a
machine which perforates and cuts ofi* each separate nut, just as you would cut
ofiTa stalk of rhubarb. Here are made all sorts of nuts in use among machin-
ists and farmers, as many as seventy different kinds and sizes.
TOWN OF PARI& 477
Seven men are employed. The nuts when finished axe packed in kegs, each
keg holding a hundred. Four thousand kegs are exported yearly. Tliis factory
is worked altogether by water-power, which at this part of the " race " is un-
failing all through the year. It equals twenty-five horae-power. The nuts are
in demand all over the Province of Ontario and in Manitoba. The present firm
began the business in 1873. They have had a uniform and still increasing
success.
Next to this factory stands the carpenter shop of Messrs. Tumbull &
Thompson. Here also the water-power of the " race " is exclusively depended
on ; doors, sashes and other carpenter work, are made.
West' of the button factory is a small building occupied by an American
named Dickson, who carries on a manufactory, unique of its kind in Canada,
of needles. Here are made not the coarser sewing needles, but the more complex
and delicate needles used in the Paris factory's knitting machine. The raw
material is a somewhat coarse steel wire. This is then well straightened and
polished by machinery worked by water-power. The straightened and polished
needle is then pointed by hand upon a revolving cylinder ; its point is then
deflected to suit the requirements of the knitting machine. This needle factory
is the only one in the Dominion of Canada. It gives employment to six men
and one girL Five thousand of these needles are manufactured every day, and
are sent all over Canada. The coils of steel wire which form the raw material
are imported from England. At the north-eastern part of the town where the
Nith winds in a semicircle round the peninsula of the Lower Town, are several
factories ; one a carpet factory, of which Messrs. Cambleford & Company are
proprietors. We enter and are courteously invited to inspect the looms at
work. The carpets are made of two materials, wool and cotton, of each of these
singly, or mixed in various proportions. Of course the more wool there is the
more durable and expensive will the carpet be. The cotton is procured from
Philadelphia The wool is mostly from Lower Canada, although some wool of
a very superior quality is obtained from Hamilton. This industry is a recent
one in Paris, havmg been established in May last Some of the carpets are of
great richness of colour and pattern. There are sixteen employees, four winders
and twelve weavers. The latter have to be workers of reliable good taste in
order to secure a proper handling of the pattern. The wool and cotton are dyed
previous to being wound, at Messrs. Penman's.
Nearly opposite, and on the east bank of the Nith, is the Penman Manufac-
turing Company s factory. It is a spacious and stately building, quite unlike
the popular ideal of a factory ; four stories high, and with lofty, well propor-
tioned apartments. This business was established by John Penman, in 1868.
In 1870 the old premises were destroyed by fire ; the present building took their
placa Four hundred persons are employed in this factory, of whom two-thirds
are female.
This firm manufactures all kinds of men's underclothing — shirts, drawers,
jackets — ^besides socks, gloves, neckties and rubber cloth. They turn out four
thousand dozen of shirts and drawers every week. Their specialty is the use
of very fine wools. They employ both Canadian and foreign wools ; Canadian
from Lower Canada or from Hamilton, foreign from England and the Cape
of Good Hope. The machines used are similar to those already described in
478 HISTOBT OF BRANT COUNTY.
the account given of Mr. Clay's factory, but one special machine is in use at
Messra Penman's establishment ; it is called the " Burson & Nelson " machine,
and it works automatically, turning out a perfectly seamless stocking. Of
these machines, which of course are patented, there are only two in the States.
The patent is the property of Messrs. Burson & Nelson, of Bockf ord, Illinois.
A considerable quantity of rubber lining is also manufactured here. A cheap
and serviceable article in warm quilts is also made. Messrs. Penman turn out
goods to the estimated value of $200,000 yearly. There are in Paris two
crockery factories, the mo&t considerable and best managed of which is known
as Henry Schuler's Paris Stoneware Works. This gives employment to five
men. It was established in 1873 as a company, consisting of Schuler &
MacGled, but Mr. MacGled withdrew from the partnership in the same year ;
it is now in Mr. Schuler's name only. The raw material of the " little stoue
jug " so celebrated in Bacchanalian ditties, is an argillaceous clay of a light-
Drown colour, and known to commerce as " stoneware clay." This is found in
South Amboy, in the State of New Jersey. There is none of it in Canada,
although there is reason to believe that some has been discovered in the North-
West.
The cost of the material, including freight, which is fully half the total sum,
is $10 a ton. The clay is well soaked with water for 26 hours, after which it
is ground in a mill worked by a single horse ; it is then ready for use. The cake
of soft ductile clay is then placed upon the revolving disc of a wheel, where it
is shaped and fashioned by hand. This is "the potter's wheel," unchanged
since ttie days when the prophet Isaiah used it as an illustration to typify the
shaping power in human destiny of the hand of a supreme directing Providence.
The jar or jug so made is next exposed to heat until all the moisture is dried
out ; it then receives an inside coating of glaze. The glaze is a solution of
some dark silicious clay, which by application of intense heat becomes a* hard,
glossy glaze. The glaze solution is applied by means of a force-pump. The
nelt process is to apply some degree of ornamentation. With a few deft touches
of a brush dipped in blue pigment a flower is depicted, not without artistic
effect, on the body of the jar. The final process is the baking. This is done
in a kiln made with Scotch fire-bricks, where the jars are baked for from thirty-
six to forty hours. Salt is applied to the glaze if it has overflowed to a part
which it is not desirable to glaze. Of these jars ten thousand are made every
year.
Two of the oldest manufacturing industries in Paris are the flour-mill on
Grand Kiver Street, and the tannery owned by Mr. H. Finlayson. The latter
stands below the Nith, at the southern part of the Lower Town. It has been
established for about forty years. A young man employed as clerk was sub-
sequently admitted as a partner, the firm becoming Finlayson, McVicar & Qua.
The extensive grist-mills of « Messrs. Crane, Baird & Co., are situated on Grand
River Street in the Lower Town. This establishment was founded on a much
smaller scale by Mr. Bobert Kirkland in 1840. Mr. Kirkland managed it as
proprietor until 1844, when Mr. J. B. Kerr succeeded him as manager, a posi-
tion which he held till 1846. Then Mr. Whitlaw carried on the business till
1878, from which time to the present it has been owned by a firm known as
Crane & Baird. They employ sixteen men; the specialty of this mill is that it
TOWN OP PARIS. 479
grinds only the finest wheat, but the firm do a considerable trade also in the
coarser grains, such as barley, oats, peas and beans. The motive power is
water, the value of which is estimated at eighty-one horse-power. The mill
turns out seven thousand barrels of the finest flour weekly. This mill has
undergone many changes. When built by Mr. Robert Kirkland in 1840, it
was on a scale suited to the humble beginnings of the Paris Settlement as it
then was. It had then a capacity of fifty barrels per day. As Paris grew the
mill was enlarged to its present size. Such are the manufactures of this busy
scene of industry. Others there were which are now extinct. A distillery, con-
ducted for many years by Mr. Hamilton, stood behind what is now the Wind-
sor Hotel on Grand Eiver Street, where a pork- packing business was also
carried on ; the farmers trading their swine's flesh for liquor. It is to be hoped
the liquor did not make swine of them. A large oil-cloth factory also stood at
the foot of the Upper Town hill, near the bridge to the Lower Town flats.
The good Town of Paris has had a loss in the oil-cloth factory being closed ;
whether the fire-water works being non-existent is a benefit or a loss is an open
question.
The Catholic Church was the pioneer church of Paris, and can boast of an
edifice which far surpasses all the ecclesiastical buildings, and is in truth the
architectui*al glory of this part of the town. It is located on the corner of
Washington and Main Streets, and was first used for Divine service in 1857.
The clergyman is the Very Rev. T. J. Dowling, Vicar-General, and at present
Administrator of the Diocese, an able preacher, a pastor of kind heart and sound
common sense, beloved by his own flock, and, it may truly be added, by all of
every denomination in Paris. The Very Eev. Father is a traveller, having
visited Rome in the last year of Pope Pio Nono. The church is a fine specimen
of decorated Gothic; the tower is lofty, with a very beautiful spire, surmounted
by a cross of gold. The building is constructed of a very rich field stone, to
which time is likely to add fresh beauty and depth of colour. The coping and
caps for buttresses are of the best cut stone from Ohio. The interior of this
church is very striking. The spirit of true Gothic art is carried out iu the
minutest detail ; everything is real ; there are no trashy ornaments, no painted
woodwork pretending to be stone. On each side are transepts separated from
the body of the nave by five massive pillars of cut stone surmounted by arches,
which give the effect of distance to this beautifully proportional church and
sanctuary. The roof of the nave is of open work, on each side ; the light falls
through the stained glass of the cler-story windows
" Dim and deep,
While round the awful archee sweep
Such airs as soothe a hermit's sleep."
The church is heated by hot air furnaces in the basement, and is at present
lighted by oil lamps. The nave and transepts are seated with oakwood ; the
windows, all of stained glass, are for the most part gifts. The mullions and
tracings, which are modified, are chastened examples of the decorative style, and
all of cut stone.
The tower of this church is fifteen feet square, and the spire a hundred and
ten feet high. The nave is ninety feet by forty-five, the chancel and sanctuary
480 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
twenty-four feet by twenty, and beyond this, communicating with the priest's
liouse, is a vestry eighteen feet by fifteen. The roof is of slate. The altar is
on festival occasions decorated with handsome gilt candlesticks. It is sur-
mounted with an elaborately-carved Gothic reredos, containing in the centre a
tabernacle or pyx for the Holy Sacrament, before which the perpetual lamp is
burning ; also above this a gilt crucifix of singular beauty, and four niches con-
taining figures of the four Evangelists, each with the appropriate symbol — ^the
Sacrificial Ox of St. Luke, the Human Figure which marks the Evangelist of the
Incarnation, the Lion of St. Mark, the Eagle of St. John. At the north or
" Gospel " side is an oil painting, the work of a French artist, representing the
baptism of Our Saviour. There are two side chapels ; that to the south, of St.
Joseph, that to the north, of the Blessed Virgin, whose image represents a face
and figui-e of ideal purity and benignity. The transept walls are decorated with
a cheap but not inartistic series of pictures of the Stations of the Cross. The
baptismal font is of white marble, carved in imitation of an ancient font
at Oxford. The entire cost of the building was $20,000, mainly raised by
the energy of Father Dowling. It was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of the
Redeemer, in February, 1881, by Bishop Crinuon, who then appointed Father
Dowling to be Vicar-General of the Diocese.
The first church in Paris, as has been said, was a Catholic one ; it is still
standing, a tiny frame building with quaint round windows. Having never been
consecrated, it was used afterwards as a school, and is now a dwelling house.
Close by, and in a central and prominent position on the Upper Town, stands
the English Church, dedicated to St. James. It is built in the cobble-stone
masonwork peculiar to this district. These cobble-stones, rounded by extinct
water-courses, are heaped in great hill-like banks on the west side of the
Grand River. They are laid in the mortar lengthways, the ends pointing out-
wards, and though more expensive than ordinary stonework, form a wall
which is both strong and picturesque. This church, at least the nave or main
part of it, was built in 1841. The rolbf is flat, the windows are of the kind
designated by architectural experts " Carpenter's Gothic," and the west end is
surmounted by one of those nondescript belfries, terminated by a tin-covered
spirelet so often seen in country churches in Canada, and whose real origin is
in the renaissance style imported into Lower Canada by the French in the
eighteenth century. The seats, of oakwood, accommodate about two hundred.
There are seveml windows bordered with stained glass — one in memory of
" Elizabeth B. Kickart, who died February the eighth, 1868; age, 27 years, 8
months, 24 days ;" another in memory of the members of the family of Mr.
Zimmerman, the well-known railway contractor, who died in a railway accident
some years ago. On* the south-east wall are two tablets— one marble, the
other a well executed memorial brass to the memory of the first and of the
second wife of the Rev. Adam Townley, D.D., some time rector of this church.
In 1865, at a cost of about $1,000, a chancel was added through the exertions
of Dr. Townley, and by the beneficence of Mrs. Dickson, of Paris. The chancel
presents a marked contrast to the rest of the church, being a genuine (xothic of
the " early English," or " first pointed " style. The roof is of open work, of
dark-stained timl}er. The east window is a triplet, each light bordered with
stained glass, of which also there are four vesica-shaped medallions bearing the
TOWN OF PABIS. 481
four Evangelistic symbols, and in the centre an Agnus Dei supporting a banner
with the cross, " displayed."
The first clergyman of the English Church at Paris was the Rev. Mr. Morse,
an able speaker and a good classical scholar, who was also the first to intro-
duce at a private school in his house something more than the most elementary
form of primary education. Mr. Louis Lapierre was for two years his pupiL
To him succeeded the Bev. Mr. Ruttan, then, during the absence of Dr. Townley
in England, the Rev. Mr. Cooper. Dr. Townley then resumed work, which
he continued with much zeal and acceptance as long as failing health permitted.
The Rev. Mr. Carswell succeeded him, and is now the deservedly popular Rector
of St. James Church.
The main body of this church was built in the time of Rev. Mr. Morse.
The church, as has been said, is that of Dr. Townley. Much good feeling
seems to prevail, and there is a marked absence of the " high " or " low " faction
fighting, which elsewhere in Canada has been attended with such mischievous
consequences to this branch of the Christian Church. The present Church-
wardens are Messrs. Byall and Clarke. In the basement a well attended Sunday
school is held, numbering 100 pupils. All through the year a week-day even-
ing service is held on Wednesday, and in Lent on Wednesday and Friday.
This parish has hitherto been joined to that of Princeton, but a movement is on
foot, which will probably be successful, to separate them and constitute Paris
into a separate rectory. This can be accomplished if the congregation agree to
raise the yearly sum of $1,000 for the rector's salary.
The Methodist denomination possesses one of the finest churches in the
Lower Town of Paris. It is built in a style which may be described as a free
modernization of the first pointed Gothic. The windows are tall, lancet-shaped,
light, bordered with stained glass ; the seats arranged amphitheatre wise, and
a chancel-like recess i-eceives the organ and choir. Previous to this edifice being
built, there existed an old wooden church built as far back as 1849. This was
burned down some years afterwaixi, and the present structure was erected in
1875, at a cost of $24,000 to the not very large membership of 268. The
present pastor is Mr. Wynkman, D.D., formerly principal of the Collegiate
Institute at Dundas. He was preceded by the Rev. Mr. Russ, M.A., the Rev.
W. McDonough, and the Rev. J. Philp. Over the chancel arch is a handsome
scroll with an emblazonment of the text, '' O worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness." There is a flourishing Sunday school under Mr. W. C. Adams as
Superintendent, with two hundred and thirty pupils, of whom one hundred and
twenty are girls. The singing in this church is exceptionally good and hearty.
The Congregationalist body were in possession of a church in 1840. It is an
unpretending wooden structure, built with wooden pediment and pillara after
the Grecian Doric order. But it has long proved too small for the require-
ments of the congregation, and a handsome new church has been erected lately
at a cost of $13,000 ; it is in the renaissance Gothic style so popular in Canada.
The windows are stained glass, and there is a beautiful " rose " or " St.
Catharine's wheel " window at the western end, where also is a gallery for the
choir and an organ, the gift of the late Mr. Hamilton, of Paris, who was a lead-
ing member and most generous supporter of this church. The seats and the
woodwork of the roof are of oak The pulpit at the east end is in a small
482 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
chancel-like recess. This charch also has a well attended Sunday school,
ninety pupils, about two-thirds of whom are girls. The present Superintendent
is Mr. C. Whitlaw. The Pastor is the Rev. Mr. Uuc^hes, an earnest and
eloquent preacher, well appreciated by his congregation* His predecessors were
the Revs. Messrs. AUworth, Ebbs and Vincent
The River Street Presbyterian Church is a small and by no means imposing
structure on River Street; the Pastor is the Rev. Mr. Grant; the members number
one hundred and eighty. The Baptist Church stands on the brow of the hill
overlooking the River Nith, where it joins the Grand River. It is a plain,
unomamented building, but the congregation contemplate building a new and
more handsome church in the Lower Town. There is a good Sunday school of
some eighty children.
In the Upper Town there is also another Presbyterian Church, to which a
considerable addition has been lately made, but which is even yet insufficient
for the needs of its large congregation of four hundred ; no that the members
talk of a new church, and the vexed question is being agitated whether, if built^
it shall be located in the Lower or in the Upper Town. The present Pastor
is the Rev. D. D. Macleod, whose eloquence and zeal do credit to a name illus-
trious in the annals of modem Presbyterianism. Among his predecessors in
the Paris church were the Reverends Thomas McCosh, David Brown, F. W.
Farrier, now Pastor of Knox Church at Ottawa, and Dr. James, now of Ham-
ilton. There is a large Sunday school attached to this church, with a hundred
and thirty pupils.
Besides these churches, all in a flourishing condition, there were two others, a
Methodist (Primitive) and a Dutch Methodist, which have succumbed to time.
Education was early cared for in Paris, although the primitive school was as
rude as the primitive dwellings. Now Paris possesses as fine a high school as
there is in Ontario, and three primary schools, one of which is carried on as a
union school in the High School. There is also a separate school managed
by the Sisters of Saint Joseph.
The High School building is situated at the highest point of the precipitous
hill which overlooks the River Nith and the Lower Town. It is a handsome
structure, and a prominent feature in a most picturesque landscape ; its lofty
tower is a landmark visible from far. Thither may be seen, ascending a steep
1)athway which winds up the hill, the boy and girl pilgrims to this shrine of
earning. The young people seem to enjoy a journey which would make some
people dizzy to look at 1 There could hardly be a prettier or healthier posi-
tion for a school, and a healthier and more intelligent gathering of boys and
girls it would be hard to find. The building is of the Italian renaissance style,
simply and severely treated ; it consists of two sidewings, and a central main
tower sixty feet hi^h. There are six class-rooms, and ample accommodation for
five hundred pupils. It is built of white brick, the class-rooms and halls are
lofty, clean, and well ventilated. The Principal is Mr. J. W. Acres, B.A., of
Trinity College, Toronto, who holds the difficult-to-obtain diploma of a licen-
tiate of the fioyal College of Preceptors, London, England. The Mathematical
Master is Mr. G. H. Armstrong ; the other teachers are Mr. F. Dodge, Miss
Annie Capron, and Miss Bullock. The pupils number one hundred and fifty-
two. We observed that the school furniture was of walnut, and that the school
TOWN OF PABIS. 483
was in thorough working order, and was supplied with every requisite educa-
tional apparatus of maps and scientific instruments.
This High School building, from its location, serves as the occasion of much
merriment to local punsters, giving rise to jests in which, as the Vicar of Wake-
field has it, " there is more laughter than wit." The school house was built in
1857, and cost $14,000. The separate school was kept up by the good
Sisters of St. Joseph in the old Catholic Chapel long before the present goodly
building was erected for their accommodation It stands on the comer of
Dumfries and Dundas Streets, and is a solid well built house of bluish grey
stone. It is presided over by Mother Philippa, Sister Scholastica, and Sister
Ambrosiana. Special attention is given to music. We heard some secular son^is
as well as h3rmns very charmingly sung. The pupils number one hundred,
including one Protestant child. The public school of the Lower Town is
situated on a hill at the northern end of Grand Kiver Street. It is a handsome
and commodious building ; its high location ensures good drainage. The teachers
are in the order of their seniority, Miss H. Spencer, Miss K M Spencer, and
Miss Barclay. The pupils are one hundred and ninety-nine, of which eighty-
six are in Miss Spencer's room, forty-nine with Miss £. M. Spencer, and sixty-
four with Miss Barclay. They are without exception very young children. We
attended the exercises in all their class-rooms, and were much pleased with the
distinct recitation and ready answering of these little people. The public
school in the Upper Town is situated beyond the Catholic Church, in a small,
one story building. The teacbei^s are Miss Forsyth and Miss Hellyer. The
number of pupils is a hundred and twenty-nine. They are reading the Second
Book, and seemed well and carefully looked after. The school accommodation
is here insufficient for the number of children when reciting in a class.
The oldest representative of the Fourth Estate in Paris is the Star, which
made its first appearance in 1849, edited by Mr. B. C. Heaile. No record was
kept of its course for the first two or three years. About 1852 it passed into
the hands of Benjamin Harold, now commercial editor of the Buffalo Cam-
Tnercial Advertiser. This gentleman was succeeded by Mr. Johnson, now
assistant librarian at the Parliament Library in Ottawa. In 1 855 it passed into
the hands of Messrs. Oliver & Powell. In 1859 Mr. Oliver ceased to be con-
nected with the Star, and, Mr. Powell, its present able editor, became sole pro-
prietor. The Star was for the first years of its existence on the Liberal side ;
it is now regarded as Conservative. This gentleman, Mr. W. G. PowctU, has
been in connection with the Star since 1854. He is a Justice of the Peace for
the County of Brant, and has occupied that position for over twenty years. He
is also an Issuer of Marriage Licenses, and has established a land agency in con-
nection with his business. His residence is on Queen Street, his office in Watt's
Block, Grand River Street.
The office of the Brant Review is a few doors east of the Post Office. The
Review was established in 1879 by Messrs, Campbell & Baker ; in 1880 it
passed into the hands of Mr. A. A. AUworth. It is a bright and well edited
journal, and has the reputation of being one of the best among the newspapers
of the County of Brant. Its politics may be described as Independent Conser-
vative. The Reform Party is represented most ably by the Transcript, which
is published on Grand River Street, nearly opposite the office of the Star. The
484 HISTOBY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Transcript was first published in the Village of Ayr, in 1860 ; it was thence
removed to Priuceton, and afterwards to Paris. Mr. James Somerville, ML P.
for North Brant, was one of its first directors. On January the 1st, 1882, it
came under the editorship of Mr. J. D. King, a vigorous journalist, a popular
citizen, and a zealous meniber of the Baptist Church in Paris.
The Transcript is is.sued weekly. Considered as a medium of local news, its
management is entitled to every praise. This journal has nine columns to the
paiie, each column being twenty-five inches long. It is published every Friday.
The Sons of Temperance have been organized for twelve years in Paris, and
have done much to spread a healthy temperance sentiment among the young
men of that town. Of their present organization the Worthy Patriarch is Mr.
Charles Chises ; the Secretary is Mr. George Brown, and the Treasurer is Mr.
Richards. The members of the Order in Paris number twenty. A lodge of
the society of Good Templars was organized in 1860 ; its membership at present
numbers a hundred. The chief officers of this organization in Paris are : Dis-
trict Deputy, Mr. Herbert Armstrong ; Worthy Chief, Alexander Kirkpatrick ;
and Treasurer, J. A Howell.
There has long been a lodge of the historic Order of Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons at Paris. It is styled St. John's Lodge, No. 82. The Master
is Mr. J. W. Trennaman ; the Senior Warden, Capt. Cox, late commanding the
No. 1 (Paris) Company of the County Brant Dufferin Rifles ; the Junior War-
den ds Mr. W. Tennant ; Secretary, Mr. R W. Baker ; the Senior Deacon, Mr.
D. Shepherd ; the Junior Deacon, Mr. A A. Allworth ; the Treasurer, Mr. A.
Campbell ; the Chaplain, Mr. A. Nash ; the Tyler, Mr. li Small.
The Oddfellows have a lodge at Paris known as No. 91, established in 1873.
The Noble Grand is Mr. John Finlayson, of Grand River Street ; the Vice-
Grand is Mr. Robert Armstrong; the Treasurer is Mr. John Kay; and the
Secretary is Mr. Wm. Frazer. The members number one hundred.
There was also an Orange Lodge which continued for some years after its
foundation, but has now been transferred. Among the Catholics of Paris there
is the "Catholic Benevolent and Mutual Benefit Society," of which Mr.
O'Neail, the present Mayor, is President, and Mr. John Shepherd, Correspond-
ing Secretary. A " Workingmen's Benefit Society" also exists ; it is not a
political or trades union organization, but a benefit society pure and simple.
A court of the Ancient Order of Foresters was instituted in the town on
Thursday evening, Jan. 4th, 1883. A large number of delegates were present
from Brantford, Hamilton, IngersoU, Woodstock, Toronto, Dundas and else-
where. The new court io to bS known as Court Harmony No. 6857, and starts
under most favourable auspices, candidates to the number of over 40 having
offered themselves for membership. When everything was in readiness the
court was opened by Bro. Walter Mills, D.C.R, No. 2, IngersoU, assisted by J.
B. Buckingham, H.C.R., Hamilton ; T. Priestland, HC.S., Hamilton ; Charles
Lanning, P.H.C.S., Toronto, and members from Court Endeavour, Brantford.
.The whole of the interesting ceremony and unwritten work was fully
demonstrated to the new court by the District Chief Ranger, after which
the election of officers was proceeded with, and resulted as follows : Henry
Almeu, C.R; Charles Newell, S.C.R. ; Jonas Cannister, Treasurer; Terris
Mans, Secretary; Donald Sinclair, S.W. ; Henry Spearing, J.W. ; Thomas
TOWN OF PARIS. 485
Aver, S.B. : Hany Allan, J.B. ; Dr. Sinclair, Surgeon. Immediately after the
installation of the officers brief addresses were made by P.H.C.S., Lanning,
Toronto ; Dr. Bowers, Ingersoll ; Bros. F. Chaplin, P.D.C.R ; Bonnett, P.C.R ;
Mitchell, C.R., and Court Secretary Izzard, of Woodstock ; also by members of
Court ELndeavour, Brantford.
A " Band of Hope," for the purpose of enlisting children in the temperance
movement, was founded at Paris in May, 1882. The President is Mr. 6. Y.
Brown, the Secretary Miss H. Mercer; it is affiliated to the Paris Sous of Tem-
perance. The membership is one hundred ; they meet every Tuesday evening
at the Band of Hope Hall, on Grand River Street, over Mr. Robertson's store.
Among the young people of the Methodist Church there has been organized
a " Literary Society for Young People," of which Mrs. Ferris is President,
Mr. Dodge, Secretary-Treasurer. The meetings are held weekly.
There are three well organized fire companies at Paris, one at the Village of
Paris Station, of which Mr. James Chaffer is Captain ; and in the Town of
Paris there are the Hose Company, of which Mr. Joseph Ions is Captain ; and
the Hook and Ladder Company, of which the Captain is Mr. McClung.
The citizens of Paris have for some time been supplied with water from wells
or springs which abound on all sides of the town, several of them being medi-
cinal and highly charged with alkaline deposits, both phosphates and carbon-
ates. But of late, when a movement was made in the Town Council to provide
a fire engine, it was urged that instead of expending some six hundred dollars
on a fire engine, it would turn out cheaper in the end to got a regular water-
supply from one of the springs and lakelets on the higher ground, so that the
hose could at any time be turned on in case of fire. It was estimated that this
would cost thirty thbusand dollars. The adoption^of the water-works plan
was especially urged by Mr. C. H. Eoberts, druggist, through whose efforts it
was at last adopted by the Council, and the work of constructing a reservoir,
and conveying the water from the spring to the reservoir and thence to the
town, was given out on a contract to Mr. 1. 1. Blackmore, of St Thomas, who
undertook to finish it by May, 1883. The spring from which the water is to
be drawn is a romantic lake-fount in the depth of the woods, among wild
flowers and ferns, and on analysis the water has been pronounced to be per-
fectly pure. The new reservoir is now under process of construction at the
head of Main Street in the Upper Town, and on Mr. Sovereign's farm. The
water-supply will be controlled altogether by the law of gravitation, as there will
be a fall of a hundred and eighty-five feet from the Main Street reservoir to
the Lower Town; of a hundred and fifty feet to the Upper Town ; and of
seventy-five feet to the Paris Station.
The Paris Volunteer Company, No. 1 of the Dufferin Rifles, has lately
been transferred to Brantford. This is to be regretted, as the company, which
consisted of fifty men, was a fine one and a credit to the town. The oflicers
were Captain Cox and Lieut. Frank Howell.
For athletic amusements Paris is well provided. It has a cricket club, a
curling club, which has fully forty members ; and there are no less than five
lacrosse clubs. Of the curling club the President is Mr. James Hackland ; Mr.
James Brookbank is Vice-President; the "Skips" are Mr. M. Cavan, and
Messrs. Torrance, Brookbank and Brown. The senior lacrosse club has for
486 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Captain Mr. John Sinclair ; for President, Mr. N. P. Venning ; for Vice-Presi-
dent, Mr. John Brookbank ; for Secretary-Treasurer, Mr. Duncan. There are
sixty members. The ^raTue is played in a field in the Upper Town. The other
lacrosse clubs are the High School Club, the Maple Leaf, the Acme, the Oak
Leaf, and the Clarkswell Club.
Paris possesses an admirably managed Mechanics' Institute, organized in
1841. The President for the present year (1883) is Mr. Charles L Newell ; the
Vice-President, Mr. Frank Jnksater ; the Secretary-Treasurer is Mr. John Kay ;
the Librarian, Mr. Samuel R Reynett There are two hundred and sixty
members, and a library of over four thousand books, well chosen, new, and
kept in good order. The authorities of the Mechanics' Institute have extended
the literary hospitality of their reading-room to all strangers visiting Paris, a
valuable boon, the reading-room being a most comfortable one, and well
furnished with newspapers and magazines. The Librarian, Mr. Seynett, is
most intelligent and obliging. To this reading-room it is quite customary for
the young ladies of Paris to drop in an.l rest while looking over the illustrated
papers and serials ; they seem quite at home, and in winter this cozy and warm
reading-room is a pleasant break in the long walk from the High School. On
great public occasions Paris is supplied with music by the local brass band,
which was organized in 1874, and is at present presided over by Mr. Emerson.
Besides the societies already mentioned, Paris a few years ago possessed a
flourishing Toung Men's Christian Association, which is, however, suspended.
Not long ago this branch of that excellent institution possessed a full roll of
members, and was in favour with all good people in Paris. But a dispute
arose between the members and the honorary members on this wisa It was
the rule that the " members " could only be those who were also members of
some church in Paris ; the honorary members were exempt from the necessity
of being also church members. But it was found that the members ruled every-
thing in the association, the honorary members being of no account The
latter objected to this, and to the compulsory rule of joining some special
church in order to qualify for membership. The difficulty sensing from this
continued to increase, and resulted in the break up of an institution calculated
to do much good to its members could they but have lived together in unity.
There is ia moral in such a story, for which reason it is here recorded. For it
is to be hoped that; a Toung Men's Christian Association, or something on the
same principle, will at no distant date be revived in Paris, and that those who
found it will see the wisdom of adopting less stringent rules of membership.
As has been mentioned, the Paris Volunteer Company, under Captain Baird,
was one of the best drilled in the county. They had their thirty-one days
drill at home in Paris of an evening, and thus got well versed in both com-
pany and battalion drill But red-tapisra grew strong in the Dominion Govern-
ment's Militia Department, and the evening drill was ordered to be exchanged
for camp drill. Then the Ottawa Government cut down the volunteer's pay,
and showed, by their treatment of Colonel Patullo, that the road to promotion
was closed against the best soldiership and the longest service, if the officer
whose promotion his comrades petitioned for happened to be a political opponent
So the best men in the company resigned, and its headquarters were removed
to the county town. But the volunteers who served in No. 1 Company are
TOWN OF PARIS. 487
ready to rally to the old flag if ever active service is required. For much
information on these and other topics we are indebted among others to Mr. John
Kay, of Paris, Agent of the Confederation Life Association, and Issuer of Mar-
riage Licenses. He was Colour-Sergeant of No. 1 Company Dufferin Rifles
when in camp at Niagara the year of the Fenian raid. Mr. Kay is also Secre-
tary-Treasurer to the Paris Mechanics' Institute, in the advancement of which
he has taken an active interest. He is a member of the Board of Education, and
Treasurer of the Paris Lodge of Oddfellows. Issuers of marriage licenses
seem to be privileged to see some of the most comic aspects of the tender pas-
sion. A young man, who looked doleful as if he had seen a ghost, waitea on
the issuer of marriage licenses, accompanied by a very pretty and evidently
refined young lady. There seemed something suspicious about the young man's
appearance, and besides, why, living at Brantford, did he come to Paris to get
married ? He was asked the usual questions prescribed by law ; it was
demanded of him whether the bride had her parents' consent ? He hesitated,
and said, " What right have you to ask me that question ?" He was told that
the law so directed " Oh, sir !" said the young lady with many a blush, " I
have got the consent of my maniTna.'* It seemed she was the daughter of a
rich citizen and alderman of Brantford, who opposed his daughter's wedding
the man of her choice simply because he was a mechanic; her mother
approved of the match, and undertook to bring the old gentleman round. The
license issuer could not resist ; mamma was made to do duty for both parents};
and the young couple having obtained their license, quickly found a parson
who did not trouble them with indiscreet questions, and were made one. Papa
did relent, and the bridegroom is now a prosperous citizen, with daughters who,
it is to be hoped, will honour father as well as mother.
Though in general a healthy locality, Paris had early need of the services of the
practitioners of the healing art. In 1834 Dr. McCosh arrived as the pioneer
physician. He was a bluff, plain spoken, kind-hearted specimen of the old time
Scottish doctor,and his practice extended to a radius of many miles in the adjacent
townships. Soon afterwards arrived Dr. Cook and Dr. Dickson, both gentle-
men still in practice at Paris. Dr. Dickson, it will be remembered, is a son to
the lady whose benefactions gave so much help to the English Church at Paris.
The other members of the medical profession in Paris at present are Drs. Burt,
Clarke and Sinclair ; the last named is also President of the Liberal Associa-
tion, and is considered an able speaker.
As has been said, Paris is — ^as there is every hygienic reason to expect it
should be — a healthy place, the malignant zymotic diseases having no record
there ; there is, however, a certain amount of malarial fever and rheumatism ;
the former caused by the existence of an undrained swamp to the north of the
town, near the railway station. The local faculty prescribe the new alkaloid
prepared from cinchona bark, called cinchonadine, with much success. During
the dreadful visitation of the cholera in 1834, there were in Paris twenty-eight
cases of true Asiatic cholera, of which but one recovered. We have learned this
and other particulars relating to the health of Paris through the courtesy of
Dr. Dickson.
There are now two legal firms practising in Paris. The longest established
is that of Mr. John McMillan, who has been in practice at Paris for about ten
years ; Mr. Charles M. Foley arrived here a year ago. Both gentlemen are
488 HISTORY OF BRAMT COUNTr.
doing a good business, and are highly respected for ability in their profession.
But the good folk of Paris are not litigious, and the aid of a lawyer is most
generally sought for the peaceful purposes oi transferring property, making
wills, and securing contracts. Literature, as we have seen, is well represented
in the three newspapers of Paris ; besides those, the Rev. Dr. Townley's contri-
butions to periocUcal literature during the last twenty years have made his
name well known through Upper Canada.
Nor has art been unknown to this town. Poor Tom Rhodes, an artist of the
true Bohemian type, wandered hither. When he could get no sale for a pic-
ture Tom was not above painting signs, and even in this, the lowest branch of
the pictorial profession, his deft hand and skilful colouring gave a dash and
finish to his works, several of which still swing in the wind over hotels and
stores in the Upper Town. Tom was " a fellow of infinite humour ; " could
turn a tune and cap a joke with the best. Everybody in Paris liked him ;
but, alas, he chiefly sought after those friendships which begin and end with the
whiskey jar. His ready skill in portrait-painting was remarkable ; some of
his pictures are still preserved in the town. Constant handling of pigments
containing lead, joined with his intemperate habits, brought on paralysis. He
sleeps in the Town Cemetery, leaving happily no near relative to mourn over
his fate.
Paris was organized as a village in 1850. Its growth was so rapid at that
time that it was incorporated as a town in 1855. Mr. Finlayson was chosen to
be the first Mayor. The Mayor for 1883 is Mr. Thomas O'Neail, grain merchant
and miller ; Mr. Robt Thomson is Reeve, and Mr. J. H. Hackland is Deputy
Reeve. The North Ward is represented in the Council by Messrs. A. H. Baird,
Peter Adams and Joseph Schaeifer ; King's Ward by Messrs. Henry Schseffer,
J. H. Ahren and F. D. Mitchell ; Queen's Ward by H. Finlayson and Charles
Arnold, there being a vacancy in this Ward at present ; South Ward by Mesora.
John Baker, W. C. Jones and John Arnold.
The Paris Custom House is under the direction of Mr. Thomas HilL Mr.
James Randall is Special Constable. As Paris is an exceptionally orderly and
law-abiding place, his active services are seldom called fur.
The Paris Post Office is presided over by Mr. Stanton, assisted by Mr. O.
HitchcAiX. There is a small branch office at Paris Station Village.
The agency ot the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways, now amalga-
mated, is held by Mr. W. Hume. There is an Express Company, that of Messrs.
B. Travers & Tennant.
The Paris money interests are looked after by a branch of the Dominion
Bank, of which Mr. Jennings is the Manager ; Mr. A G. Dickson, Accountant ;
and Mr. Flemming, Clerk. This branch bank was established in 1869.
As the principal school is a union one, the Board of Education is organized on
the same plan. Their names for 1883 are as follows : Dr. Clarke, Chairman ;
Dr. Burt, Dr. Sinclair, the Rev. Mr. MacLeod, Mr. J. D. King, editor of the
Paris Transcript. These gentlemen represent the High School. Those who
preside over the public school are Messrs. C. Whitlaw, G. Hoffman, John Kay,
Captain A. N. Baird, late of the Paris Company of the Dufferin Rifles, H.
Finlayson, J. Walker, John Walker and J. S. Brown. These gentleman have
shown a laudable public spirit in ungrudgingly expending the necessary sums
for building and other purposes.
TCSCARORA TOWNSHIP. 489
TUSCARORA TOWNSHIP.
This political subdivision originally belonged to the County of Wentworth,
in the District of Oore. On the formation of Brant County in 1852 it was
attached to this county. It occupies the /south-eastern corner of the county,
and is bounded on the ni»rth by Onondaga Township ; on the east by Oneida
Township, Haldimand County ; on the south by the Townships of Walpole,
Haldimand County, and Townsend, Norfolk County ; and on the west by the
latter township and the Township of Brantford. It has an area of 41,122
acres, and in shape is almost square, the irregular side of the square being
formed by the Grand River, which flows in a tortuous manner along the north-
ern boundary.
The township comprises the largest portion of the Indian Reserve belonging
to the Six Nations, who originally owned 634,910 acres lying along the Grand
River, the greater portion of which has been surrendered to the Crown in
trust, to be sold for the benefit of the tribea The following is a list of the
principal surrenders that have been made by the Indians :
January 15 and February 6,1798. — ^The lands forming the Townships of Dum-
fries, Waterloo, Woolwich and Nichol, extending downwards on both sides of the
river, from the northern extremity of the reserve, arid the greater part of the
Townships gf Canboro' and Moulton on the eastern side of the entrance of
the Grand Kiver, 352,707 acres.
April 19, 1830.— The site of the Town of Brantford on the Grand River,
807 acres.
April 19, 1831. — ^The northern part of the Township of Cayuga, on the same
part of the river, 20,670 acres.
February 8, 1834. — ^The residue of the Township of Cayuga, the Township
of Dunn, and part of Canboro' and Moulton, 50,212 acres.
On March 26, 1835, all the surrenders made up to that time were confirmed.
January 18, 1841. — The residue of the lands, with the exception of a reserve
of 20,000 acres, and the lands actually in the occupation of Indians, amounting
to upwards of 220,000 acres.
As regards the money-consideration for this land, the Government stand
to the Indian in the relation of trustees, accounting for and apportioning
to him, through the agency of their officer and appointee, the Indian Superin-
tendent, at so much per capita of the population, the interest arising out of the
investment of such money. Sales of lands among themselves are permissible ;
but these, for the most part, narrow themselves down to cases where an Indian,
with the possession of a good lot, of fair extent and with a reasonable clearing,
vested in him, leaves it to pursue some calling or follow some trade amongst
the whites ; and treats perhaps with some younger Indian, who, disliking, the
29
490 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
pioneer work involved in taking up some uncultivated place for himself, and ^
ferring to make settlement on the comparatively well cultivated lot, bays it.
The land is rolling and almost level, with gentle depressions along the
streams, and no hills of any consequence. The soil is deep and fertile, and
well adapted to the cultivation of almost any crop. It is particularly well
favoured for the raising of wheat and other cereals. It is composed of a rich
clayey loam, underlying a strata of rich alluvial deposit. Gravel is foond in
places, and excellent stone for macadamizing the highways is found in 'the beds
of the streams. A good supply of the finest timber abounds, furnishing lumber
for building and other purposes. But little bottom or wet or swampy land
exists, and no land in the township could be pronounced to be uncultivable.
About three miles south of the Grand River is situated the noted " Sour
Spring." The country for some distance around is thickly wooded, but in the
immediate vicinity of the spring is a small clearing on a rising ground, on one
side of which is the spring, in an enclosure some eight or ten rods square. In
the centre of this is a hillock, six or eight feet high, made up of the gnaried
roots of a pine now about decayed The whole soil is saturated with acid water,
and the mould at the top of the hillock is stron<;ly acid. The principal spring
is at the east side of the stump, and has a round basin about eight feet in dia-
meter and four or five deep. There is no visible outlet to the basin ; at the centre
a constant ebullition is going on from the evolution of small bubbles of gas,
which is found on examination to be carburetted hydrogen. The water is strongly
acid and styptic to the taste, and at the same time decidedly sulphurous, and
the odour of sulphuretted hydrogen is perceived for some distance round the
place. Within a few feet of this is another smaller basin, two feet in diameter
and a foot deep, which is evolving gas more copiously than the other, and is
somewhat more sulphurous to the taste but not more acid. In other places are
three or four smaller cavities partly filled with a water more or less acid, and
evolving a smaller quantity of gas. The temperature of the larger spring is
56* F., that of the smaller one dS*" near the surface, but on burying the ther-
mometer in the soft mud at the bottom the mercury rises to 60** b', [The fore-
going description is taken from an article iumished by Mr. Hunt to " Smith's
Canada "].
The following statistics, taken from the census of 1880, will give an idea of
the number and condition of the inhabitants of the township : There were 721
houses, 726 families, and 2,891 inhabitants. Of Baptists there were 552;
Brethren, 56 ; Catholics, 20 ; Church of England, 1,156 ; Church of Canada
Methodists, 410 ; Episcopal Methodists, 92 ; P^byterians (Church in Canada),
47 ; Universalists, 20 ; pagans, 537. There were 19 Africans, 150 English, 29
French, 2 Germans, 2,509 Indians, 134 Irish, and 45 Scotch. Nineteen were
bom in England and Wales, 15 in Ireland, 8 in Scotland, 4 in Quebec, 2,831 in
Ontario, and 14 in the United States.
The people live under separate laws of the Crown, have no representation
in the councils of the County or Dominion, and are not amenable to the laws,
except for crimes and capital oflences. They elect their chiefs among them-
selves, and settle all their differences in council of the chiefs, for which purpose
they have a council house built in the township. There is but one post office
in the township, at Ohsweken.
TUSCABORA TOWNSHIP. 491
The first Church of England built in the Province was erected by the
Indians in this township, and is still standing. It is known as the Mohawk
Church, and is situated about a mile and a half south of the City of Brantf ord,
on the site of the old Mohawk Village. They have now in their possession a
communion service of silver, the gift of Queen Anne, which is fully spoken of
elsewhere in this work. From a sketch of the life of Captain Joseph Brant,
by Ke-che-ha-gah-me-qua, a Brantford lady, a pamphlet filled with interesting
facts, laboriously collected and pleasantly presented, we take the following
history of the old Mohawk Church, a church of which Brant was the foimder :
" In 1784 the Rev. John Stewart, who had interested himself so much for their
(the Six Nation) spiritual improvement in the States, emigrated with his
family to Canada. In 1786 he visited the Indians, who were his former
charge, at their new settlement at the Mohawk Village. Here he found them
comfortably located on a fertile soil — the village containing about 700 souls.
Mr. Stewart was delighted with their beautiful church, and remarks : 'As they
had no stated clergyman at the time, I preached to a very large audience, and
it cost me a struggle to refuse the unanimous and pressing invitations of this
large settlement, with additional salary, to remain amongst them.' The late
Rev. Dr. Addison, of Niagara, visited them twice a year to perform baptisms
and marriages. He was succeeded by the Rev. K Leeming, then resident at
Ancaster, who visited them occasionally. Their first resident minister was the
Rev. Mr. Hough, sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, succeeded by the Rev. R. Luggar, whom the New England
Corporation Go. supplied, who remained but a few years, being obliged in
1836 to return to England on account of ill health, where he soon after died,
much regretted. Since that time the Rev. A Nelles (now Canon Nelles),
assisted by the Rev. A. Elliott, have, by God's help, been their indefatigable
and self-denying missionaries."
PART V.
BIOGRAPHICAL
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
CITY OF BRANTFORD.
KEY. MANLY BENSON, Pastor of Brant Avenue Methodist Churoh, Brant-
ford, was bom in 1842, in Prince Edward Comity, Ontario. He comes from the old
U. K Loyalist stock, Uie early founders of Canadian nationality. To this may be
attributed the sturdy mental and moral, as well as physical, fibre by which he is
characterized. At the early age of ten years Mr. Benson was converted to Cod at a
special service held by the late Joseph Reynolds. He grew up under the fostering
influence of the Babbath school, the class meeting, the public and social means of
grace. His parents removed to the Town of Newburg, Ont, where young Manly
Benson received a good education at the Academy, and prepared for the work of a
teacher. He taught for a few years, at the same time continuing his studi«*s with the
Principal of the Academy. The piety and cultivated taste of the young teacher com-
mended him to the notice of the Methodist Church of the place, and after some
training as a local preacher, he was recommended for the Christian ministry. He was
received on trial in 1863, travelled for four years as junior preacher on the Bomney,
Chatham, Windsor and Sarnia Circuits, and was ordained at the Hamilton Confer-
ence of 1867. He was married July 9, 1867, to Julia McCrea, third daughter of the
Hon. Walter McCrea, now Judge of Algoma County, Ontario. He then traveUed, as
Superintendent, the Ridgetown, Newberry and Cookville Circuits, and was after-
wards invited to the Centenary Church, Hamilton, where he spent three years, and
has since ?one, by invitation, for three years each to Stratford and St. Thomas. Mr.
Benson then came to Brantford, June 4, 1881, where he is at present located in charge
of the Brant Avenue Church. On every circuit and station on which he laboured,
the temporalities as well as the spiritualities of the church have greatly prospered.
In 1871, in company with Rev. Dr. Punshon, he crossed the continent, visiting many
points of interest in the United States and firitish Columbia. At a later period he
made an extended tour through France, Italy, Switzerland, South-Eastem Germany,
Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland. Not content with enjoying the scenes and asso-
ciations of foreign lands without sharing the enjoyment with others, he has com-
municated pleasure and profit to ddighted audiences in the principal cities and towns
of western Canada by his eloquent lectures on many of the places of interest visited
by him. He is also an earnest worker in temperance reform, the Sunday school
cause and every good object. Since he left school in his boyhood he has *' paddled
his own canoe," and is thus, in an emphatic sense, a self-made man. His married
life has been blessed with eight children, of whom six are now living — ^two sons and
four daughters.
KEY. HAMILTON BIGGAR, Superannuated Minister of the Canadian Methodist
Church, Brantford, was bom in Queenston, Canada, Jan. 6th, 1806, and is a son of
Robert Biggar, a native of Scotland, who came to this country between 1804 and
1806. He was a farmer by occupation, and located in Lincoln County, of the Niagara
496 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
]>iBtrict, where he resided until aboat 1810, and then removed to Stony Creek, where
he lived during the War of 1812. He was too old to actively participate in that
trouble, but three sons took part. In the winter of 1816 he removed to Mt^ Pleasant,
this county, where he located on 100 acres of land. He was a prominent citizm in
the early days of Brant County, and resided there until his death. He married
Amelia Lauder in Scotland, who was the motlier of 11 children, three of whom yet
survive. She died in 1(^26, and Mr. Biggar in 1836 or .837. Our subject was the
ninth child of this large &mily, and was ten years of age when he came to this county.
From here he went to the Bay of Quinte and resided with a brother for nine years,
untU of age, when he attended a district school at Cobourg, and soon after entered the
ministry of the Episcopal Church, the church having that name until 1833, when it
was changed to the Wesleyan Methodist. Mr. Biggar was a missionary, and estab-
lished the Indian Mission for the Chippewa tribe at Rice Lake, near Coboui^, in 1827.
He was there two years, and then went to Hollowel, now Picton, Circuit, Bay of
Quinte, and was there one year ; at Whitby, one year ; London, one year ; West-
minster, one year ; Long Point, two years ; Coboui^, one year ; Tonge Street, two
years ; Nelson Circuit, two years ; Drummondvillc, two years ; Mohawk Mission, four
years; Cobourg, Treasurer of the College, two years; Grimsby, two years; Dumfries,
two years; which latter closed the year 1852. Mr. Biggar then retired from the
ministry, and settled in Brantford. In January, 1853, upon the oi^ganization of the
county, he was appointed Treasurer, held that office fourteen years, and resigned in
1867 on acoouni^ of bodily infirmities. Since then he has retired from active life, not
having preached for two years. He was married, in 1832, to Eliza Racy, a native of
Mt. Pleasant, and they were the parents of 9 children, 8 of whom are living ; only
three in Branc County ; Charles, in Brantford ; Fannie, at home ; and Mrs. Simpson.
THOMAS BOTHA M, broker, Brantford, Ont, was bom in Shropshire, England,
March 10th, 1820, and is a son of Thomas Botham, Sr., who was a merchant in Eng-
land, of which country he was a native. He followed his son to this country in 1848,
settling in Lower Canada, where he died in 1854. He was married to Miss Jane
Roberts, who died in Ens^land. They had six children, three of whom are living ;
only one, Thomas, being in this county. Thomas Botham, our subject, left England
when he was twelve years old, and came to this country to an elder brother, who
residt-d in Montreal He remained in that city two or three years and attended the
French College at St. Hyacinthe for three years. From there he came west to Mount
Pleasant in 1835, and in 1840 engaged as a clerk in Brantford for a short time. He
then entered into partnership with Cook & Strobridge, in the mercantile business,
gradually getting exclusively into the dry goods trade, which they carried on until
1864, a period of about 24 years. The Government then employed him for a year in
investigating the financial affairs of Brantford. He was in the grocery business five
years, and was afterwards an official assignee for the County of Brant until 1881, a
period of twelve years, and at present is engaged iu'brokerage. Mr. Botham was form-
erly an Oddfellow, and is a Reformer in politics, having been President of the Reform
Association of this county for 12 years. He has been Justice of the Peace since 1856
for the County of Brant, and has served two terms as Mayor of the city. He has
been a Captain in the Reserve Militia of Canada since 1854. Mr. Botham was married
Oct. 5th, 1847, to Miss Ella Jane Hardy, of Mount Pleasant. They have three chil-
dren, Thomas, Marcia, and Alexander. All are members of the Church of EIngland.
WILLIAM BUCK, stove manufacturer, Brantford, was bom in Ancaster, Went-
worth County, Aug. 22nd, 1828, and is a son of Peter Buck, a native of Canada, who
came to Brantford in 1831. He was born October 2nd, 1793, and died in 1880 aged
87 years. He was married to Hannah Yeiiger, who was bom in Ontario, and is yet
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 497
living at the age of 79 years. They are the parents of four children, three of whom
are yet living, two in this county. His grandf Ather, Frederick Buck, was a U. £.
Loyalist, who came to Canada from the States and settled at Fort Erie, where he had
large tracts of land. The subject of our sketch was a child when the family came to
Brantford, and was reared and educated here. In 1843 he learned the trade of a tin-
smith, and worked as apprentice and journeyman at it until 1852, when he engaged
in the tin and stove business. In 1858 he commenced the manufacturing of stoves,
and in 1866 moved into his present quarters. He has been very successful in busi-
ness, and is one of the largest iron founders and stove manufacturers in the Province.
He is largely interested in various other business and manufacturing enterprizes in
the city. He was married Oct 1st., 1856, to Alice Foster, a native of England, by
whom he has had seven children, five living, viz., Alice A, George Phillip, William E.,
Annie E., Frederick F. Charles and Helen B. are deceased. Mr. Buck and family
are members of the Baptist Church, near the Park, and in politics he is a B>eformer.
THOMAS BURNLEY, assistant in chaige of the Grand Trunk R. R Car Shops,
Brantford, was bom in Yorkshire, England, June 3, 1829, and is a son of Benjamin
Burnley, a farmer by occupation, who lived and died in England. He mai-ried Amelia
Barber, by whom he had a family of 11 children, 8 of whom are now living, three in
Canada. Their mother is also dead. Thomas, our subject, was reared in England,
where be learned the joiners' and cabinet-makers' trade, at which he served an appren-
ticeship of five years. In 1854 he came to Canada, settling at Windsor in the empluy-
ment of the Great Western R. R. Co.' Here he remained till 1859, when he went to
England on a six months' visit, and on his return to Canada entered the car shops of
the Great Western R. R. Co. at Hamilton, where he was employed until February,
1856, when he came to Brantford and engaged in the car shops of the Grand Trunk
R. R. Co., and has been there ever since. Mr. Burnley served as a volunteer in the
Grand Trunk Brigade for 13 years, and retired with grade of First Lieutenant in the
Dufferin Rifles, the Grand Trunk Brigade having merged into the Dufferin Rifles.
CSee Military History in this work). He is a member* of Brant Lodge, No. 45,
Masonic, and has been connected with it since its inception. He is also a member
of all the Grand Trunk Societies in Brantford, and a member of Grace (Episcopal)
Church. Mr. Burnley was united in marriage August, 1852, with Hannah Mills, a
native of Leeds, England, by whom he has a family of four children, viz. : Samuel
M., in Port Huron ; Lizzie, with H. W. Brethour & Co., in the millinery department;
Arthur, a carpenter in the Grand Trunk 'shops ; and Amelia, at home. Mrs. Burnley
is a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
REV. ROBERT CAMERON, Pastor of Park Baptist Church, Brantford, is descended
from the Glennevis branch of the Cameron Clan, and his grandfather came to America
from Glennevis, near Fort William, Scotland, in the year 1775. In the contest of the
Colonies for independence he entered the Royal army, and at the close of the war set-
tled in Cornwall, Ont. Here our subject's father, the late Lieut -Col. Robert Cameron,
was bom in 1789, and when a young man went west to the County of Oxford, and
began life there as one of its earliest pioneers, in the year 1 820. He settled upon a
tract of land granted to him as a son of one of those U. E. Loyalists whose memory
is so justly honoured by all Canadians. He married Agnes Ross, a native of Cornwall,
by whom he had a large family, nine of whom are still living in various parts of the
Dominion. He filled many positions of trust in Oxford County during lite, and died
there in the year 1875. Mrs. Cameron is still living, and resides at the old homestead,
" Glengarry Hill/* with her youngest eon, W. W. Cameron. The Rev. Mr. Cameron
first attended a private school sustained by his father, and afterwards, when the public
school was opened in the section where he lived, he was sent to that with more or less
498 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
regalarity until be was 18 yean of age. At this time he went to Slarkey Seminaiy,
situated on the western side of Lake Seneca, in the State of New York. On retoming
home he began to study for the legal profession at Ingersoll for a few months, bat at
this time his mind was turned into another channel, and after a year of teaching in
the common school, his studies were shaped with a view to the ministry, and he preached
as frequently as opportunity offered. He prepared for matriculation at Toronto Uni-
yersity under the private tuition of a Roman Catholic piiest by the name of Morriaon.
On the Sunday previous to going to 'Toronto, he was baptized in the River Thames
near the place of his birth, and thus publicly declared that his views were in harmony
with those held by the Baptists, although he did not unite with that- body until a year
afterwards. After having entered upon the second year at University College, Toronto,
he came to Woodstock to edit and publish T?ie Baptist Freeman^ and hert* he formed
a Baptist Church of which he was the pastor. He then r&«ntered the University aud
graduated in 1868 as Bachelor of Arts, and in 1869 as Master of Arts. Mr. Camooa
then became pastor of a church at Fairport, near Eochester, N. Y., and while here he
was married, in Sept., 186 .>, to the eldest daughter of the late Eev. Alexander Lorrimer,
B.A., Librarian of Toronto University. He remained at Fairport until December,
1869, and then went to England to represent the interests, of Grande Ligne Miaaion.
Aft^r eight months of constant travelling in various parts of England and Scotland, he
returned home and settled as pastor of a Baptist Church on 1 7th Street, in New York
City, and filled that position for nearly five years. While there he assisted in found-
ing The Baptist Untoriy and was one of its principal contributors until it became an
element of disintegration in the Baptist denomination. He then withdrew from the
paper, and at the same time resigned the pastorate of the church. On coming to
Canada to spend his summer holidays and visit his friends, he passed through Brant-
ford, and received and accepted a call to the jMUtorate of the Park (then Tabernacle)
Baptist Church, settling here as the successor of the Rev. John Alexander, in 1875.
Under his pastorate the old Music Hall has been sold, and the present handsome
edifice fronting on Victoria Square has been erected as a church. While the design
and proportions of the building reflect credit upon the architect, its internal ari-an^e-
ments and conveniences exhibit good judgment and taste on the part of the pastor
and the Building Committee. The number of communicants and the congregation
have been largely increased, and the benevolent and missionary work of the church
developed under Mr. Cameron's ministry, ably sustained as he is by some of the most
successful business men of Brantford.
W. S. CAMPBELL, Brantford. Treasurer of Brant County and Brantford Town-
ship, was born in Brantford Township, this county, Feb. 25th, 1840. He is a son
of Archibald D. Campbell, a native of Glengarry, Ontario, who was a carpenter and
joiner by trade, following building for many years, and who was engaged in mercantile
pursuits in early life. Ht) came to this county in 1838, and bought 100 acres of land
three miles north of Brantford, where our subject was bom. There he lived until his
death in 1858. His wife died in 1842 ; she was a Miss Catherine Stembei^h, a native
of Rochester, K.Y. They were the parents of three children, one son and two
daughters. W. S. Campbell was the youngest of the three children, and was reared
on the home farm, receiving a conunon school education. He engaged in farming,
and has always been occupied in agricultural pursuits. He has been en^^at^d in
different occupations, but has still operated the farm, which now consists of 165 acres.
In 1866 he was elected a member of the Township Council, and for ten years held the
positions of Councillor, Deputy Reeve and Reeve. He was made Warden of Brant
County in 1873, and in 1875 was appointed by the County Council to his present
position. He was married on the 18th September, 1871, to Miss Mary Ellen Hawley,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKSTCHBS. 499
a native ci Ontario, and a daogbter of Hiiam Hawley, of New York. They have had
5 children, 4 living — Charles Sherman, Walter Grordon, Helen Edna, Colon Loraa
The second child, William Sheldon, is deceased. Mr. Campbell, wife and fiuiiily,
attend the services of the Canadian Methodist Charch, and he is a member of Gore
Lodge, No. 34, LO.O.F. He is an active politician, and is a strong Liberal in his
views. He also takes some interest in the work of the Agricoltoral Society, of which
he has heen Treasurer for a number of years,
ALLEN CLEGHORN, Brantford, was bom at Edinburgh, Scotland, December
28th, 1822, and is a son of James Cleghoin, also a native of Scotland and a fiuriner by
occupation, who came to Canada about 1832, and purchased tracts of land near Mont-
real, where he resided until his death. He married Clementina Moir, who was the
mother of 12 children, 8 now living. She is also dead. Mr. Allen Cleghom was about
12 years of age when be came to Canada, and he received a fair education. About
1838 he went to HamOton, where he was clerk in a general store for some years ;
thence back to Montreal, and about the year 1847 he came to Brantford and opened a
store on the south side of Colborne Street, opposite Queen Street, where he was in
business for some years. Finally he engaged in the wholesale hardware trade, and
erected the large brick building now occupied by Joseph Stratford, corner of King and
Dalhousie Streets. He retired from active business in 1879. He has occupied the
position of Chairman of the Board of License Commissioners for the South Riding of
the County of Brant, and has been appointed by the Ontario Government their Com-
missioner to superintend the distribution of Municipal Loan Funds due the Township
of Tuscarora, to be spent in the erection of public works. For six years he was a
Director of the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway, and was Chairman of the Boaid of
Directors for two years, acting as Managing Director while in that position. He pro-
moted the construction of the Jntematinnal Bridge at Buffalo, N.Y.; he was Chairman
of the Board of Public School Trustees for two years, and for eight consecutive years
was President of the St. Andrew's Society. He is a Reformer in politics, and a member
of Zion Presbyterian Church — Dr. Cochrane, pastor. In 1850 he was made a Chief of
the Six Nation Indians, and during the time of the reinterment of the remains of
Captain Brant, in which he took especial interest, he was admitted into the Upper
Mohawk tr be, and was made an honorary chief of all the tribes of British North
America, under the name of Karoweho, meaning " Good News." Mr. Cleghom is the
only white man ever made a chief of the Six Nations by going through the forms of
ceremony. He has taken an active interest in the raising of funds to erect a suitable
monument to the noted Chief Brant, which will be placed in the centre of Victoria
Park. This labour and time has been gratuitous on the part of Mr. Oleghorn, and he
deserves great credit foi it.
A. D. CLEMENT, Postmaster of Brantford, Ont, was bom in Hamilton, Went-
worth County, Got., March 26th, 1836, and is a son of Joseph D. Clement He has
resided in Brantford since 1840. Obtaining only a fair education, he became a clerk
for his father at the age of fourteen years, and remained in that position until 1862,
when his father resigned in his favour. Mr. Clement has been in this office for thirty-
two years, has five clerks under him, and his office has the highest revenue of any of
the offices outside the old Dominion cities, and its expenditure is less than many other
cities. He was married September 17th, 1871, to Lydia K Kendall, a native of Kings-
ton but a resident of Brantford. lliey have had four children, only two living ; Joseph
K. and Edith Maud. Mr. Clement is a member of the Methodist Church, and Mrs.
Clement attends the services of the Congregational Church.
DANIEL CLIFFOED, dealer in furniture and undertaker, Brantford, was bom in
Ireland, November 28, 1828, and is a son of William Clifford, also a native of Ireland,
600 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
and a book-keeper by occupation. The latter came to Canada in 1 837, settling first
in Guelph, and two years later at '' I'he Forty/* in Wentworth County. He then
went to Port Burwell, Ont, and two years later came to Brantford, where he died,
January 16, 1867. He was married in Ireland to Eliza Dobbs, who died when Daniel,
our subject, was but a year old. The latter came to Canada with his father, and when
fifteen years of age went to Gait, Ont., where he learned the cbair-making business, as
well as the cabinet-making and painting trades. Here (Gait) he remained about three
years, anc^ afterwards did journeyman work in various parts of the country till 1849,
in which year he came to Brantford and w«mt into business, but subsequently went to
Port Burwell, where he lived five years. Mr. Clifford then returned to Brantford,
where he has for the past fifteen years been doing a very large trade in the furniture
business, and the best undertaker's trade in the city. Besides his undertaking
establishment at 75 Colbome Street, and furniture store at 58, same street, he has a
machine shop on Alfred Street, in the East Ward, where he manufactures about one-
third of the furniture he sells. Mr. Clifford is a member of Grace (Episcopal) Church,
and is a Conservative in politics. He is also a member of the Canadian Order of
Eoresters and the Mohawk Lodge of Ontario Order of Masons, but has never aspired
to any municipal or other office, his time and efforts being all devoted to business. He
was married September 20, 1851, to Margaret Johnston, a native of Ireland, and a
daughter of Robert Johnston, County Antrim, who came to Canada in 1834, settling
for a time in Kingston, Ont, and afterwards in the eastern part of Brantford, where
he died, July 4, 1871. He married Mary A. Woodard, also a native of Ireland (County
Derry), and by her had a family of nine children, six now living, Mrs. Cliffoid being
the only one in Brant County. Her mother (Mrs. Johnston) died October 2, 1867.
Mr. and Mrs. D. Clifford are the parents of four children, Mary A. and Sutherland G..
both deceased, Charles Johnston and Geoige Alexander. All the family are members
of Grace (Episcopal) Church.
WILLIAM COCHRANE, D.D., Minister of Zion Church, Brantford, was bom
in Paisley, Scotland, February 9, 1832, his parents being William and Mary Cochrane.
His father was bom in Dairy, Ayrshire, and the family sprung from the same stock
as the renowned seaman Thomas Cochrane, afterwards Earl of Dundonald, or Lord
Cochrane. His mother was from the Island of Arran, Scotland. After attending
the parish schools of his native town from the age of four and a half years until
twelve, he entered the shop of Murray & Stewart, booksellers and stationers, where
he remained between ten and eleven years. He was a youth of indomitable energy,
and devoted all his leisure hours to study. So great was his thirst for knowledge
during the latter part of that period, that he gave up all his spare time to the study
of the classics, and finally entered the University of Glasgow, going from Paisley
every morning at 5 o'clock to attend classes. When he was in his twenty-third year,
two gentlemen in Cincinnati, who had known him in Paisley when a mere child, and
who had heard of his persevering efforts to obtain a higher education, offered him a
home and ample means to study for the ministry, on condition that he would come to
the United States. Although the proposal was strongly opposed by his pastor, the
late Rev. Dr. Wm. Eraser of the Free Middle Church, Paisley, and other friends —
who wished him to enter the ministry in the Scottish Church-^he accepted the offer,
and after spending a few weeks in Cincinnati, entered the classes of Hanover Collie,
Indiana, in September, 1854, where he graduated with highest honour and took his
degree of B.A. in 1857. During the last year of his course in Hanover, he pursued
his theological studies, along with the regular branches of the art course, under the
direction of the Bev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, recently Professor of Theology in Dan-
ville, Kentucky, and now Pastor of the Seventh Church, Cincinnati. Immediately
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 301
after his graduation, he entered the Prinoetown Theological Seminary in New Jersey,
and pursued his studies there for two years, under the Rev. Drs. Hodge, Alexander,
McGiU and Green. In February, 1659, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery
of Madison, Indiana, and was called, and settled as Pastor of the Scotch Presby-
terian Church, Jersey City, N. J., on the 7th June, 1859, where he continued for
three years. In December, 1861, he paid a visit to his friend Dr. John Thomson, then
minister of Knox Church, Gait, by whom he was asked to preach in Zion Church, Brant-
ford, which was then vacant, and heavily burdened witli a debt that almost threatened
its extinction. Immediately afterwards, the congregation sent him a pressing and unani-
mous call, which he was led seriously to consider, and finally accepted. Inducted
into his present charge on the 13th of May, 1862, he has served his people faithfully
for twenty-one years. During this long period he has received repeated calls and
flattering invitations to wealthy churches, in other and much larger cities than Brant-
ford. Boston, New York, Newburyport, Detroit, Chicago and Toronto, have all endeav-
oured to have him, but he has firmly resisted the temptation to leave Brantford. and
sever the ties that bind him to an attached people. During his ministry in Brantford
the congregation has more than quadrupled in numbers, and has now upwards of 600
members^ In addition to his pastoral work, Dr. Cochrane, in 1874, founded the
Brantford Young lAdies' College, assisted by other gentlemen in his congregation, and
acted as President from its start, until 1 880 teaching some of the higher classes
during every session. For twelve years he has filled the office of Clerk of the Synod
of Hamilton and London, and for fourteen years was Clerk of the Presbytery of
Paris. For twelve years he has been Convener of the Home Mission Committee of
the Presbyterian Church in Canada, an office of great responsibility and labour, and
entailing a large amount of travel and correspondence. With all these ecclesiastical
burdens, he is at the same time one of the most public-spirited citizens that Brant-
ford contains. He has been for twelve years President of the Mechanics' Institute,
and fully identifies himself with every educational and literary enterprise that has
for its object the good of the community and county. Dr. Cochrane has had his full
share of honours from the Church he has loved and served so well, and from other
quarters. In 1864, he received the degree of M.A. from Hanover College, and agaiA
in 1875 the degree of Doctor of Divinity, having at the same time the offer of the
latter honour from another college. In 1869, he represented the Canada Presby-
terian Church at the General Assemblies of the Scottish and Irish Churches. In
1873 he was sent as deputy to Manitoba, in connection with college and mission
work, and again in 1882. In July, 1883, he was sent as deputy to visit the churches
in British Columbia, and at the last General Assembly, held in St. John, N.B. (June,
1883), he was unanimously elected to the highest gift within the church — the Mode-
ratorship of the General Assembly. Dr. Cochrane is an indefatigable worker, on the
platform, in church courts, and by his pen. No clergyman is more frequently called
to preach special sermons at anniversaries and on the opening of new churches. As
a preacher he is popular in the best sense of the term. Though a speaker of great
readiness and fluency, his sermons aire prepared with the greatest care, and as a rule
written in fulL He uses his notes very little in the pulpit ; his delivery is forcible,
animated and impressive ; his arrangement is logical, his style clear, and his illus-
trations open, vivid and striking. 'Ihoroughly despising sensationalism of all kinds,
he preaches the Gospel in its simplicity and purity, and by his clear exposition of
truth, and earnest appeals to the heart and conscience, seldom fails to make a deep
impression upon his hearers. Within the last few years he has published three
volumes of sermons, — " The Heavenly Vision," '* Christ and Christian life," and
'* Warning and Welcome." These volumes admirably stand the crucial test of closest
502 HISrORT OF BRANT COUNTY.
study. As a writer he is clear, terse and vigorous, and his style, though affecting
nothing of the ornate, possesses many of the ^^races of the polished scholar. In addi-
tion to these volumes, he is a frequent writer for the presS; and several of his papers
have been republished in American periodicals. As a lecturer, were he to respond
to all his applications, during the winter season he would never be at home. The
church in which Dr. Cochrane statedly ministers is now one of the finest in Ontario.
In 1868 the edifice was enlarged by the addition of galleries; in 1876 a handsome
organ was added ; and this year it has been entirely remodelled and enlarged at a coat
of $14,000. Dr. Cochrane was married July 24, i860, to Miss Mary NeiLson Hous-
toun, of Paisley, Scotland, who died January 8, 1871. In October 2, 1873, he was
again married to Miss Jennette Elizabeth Balmer, of Oakville, Ontario. His &mily
consists of three boys and a girl, and his eldest son is at present attending classes in
the University of Toronto.
W. E. COCKS HUTT, dealer in grocei-ies and hardware, in separate shops, and
buyer and sbii^pur of grain and produce, Colborne Street, Brantfoni, was bom in that
city in 1855, being a son of Ignatius Cockshutt and Elizabeth Foster, the former of
whom is the oldest and best kuown merchant of Brantfurd. In hid school days, the
subject of this biography attended the Collegiate Institute of Brantford, and afterwards
a similar institute at Gait, Ontario, for two years. He then went to England and
entered the produce house of Thomas Furness & Co., Hartlepool, Durham, in which estab-
lishment he remained six months. Following this, he spent some time in the tea
warehouse of Ikites, Evans & Co., London, where he com|)leted his business training,
and then proceeded on a three months^ tour on the Continent, in company with his
brother Charles, of the firm of Darling, Cockshutt & Co., woollen goods merchants,
Toronto, Ontario. On returning to Canada, Mr. Cockshutt manage<l his father's busi-
ness until March 15, 1882, when he bought out the stock and completely refitted the
stores. Twelve hands are employed and a very large trade is carried on, almost doubling
itself within a year. Mr. Cockshutt is a charter member of Farringdon Debating
Society, and one of the three original members still in the society, and has held the
position of President for three years, besides acting at other times as Treasurer and
Secretary. He is also a member of F<irrin<vdon Independent Charcli. •
I. COCKSHUTT, retired merchant, and one of the oldest business men in Brant-
ford, was bom in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, August 24th, 1812, and is a son of
James Cockshutt, a native of Torkflhire, who was a manu&icturer of cotton and '' stuff"
goods in England. James Cockshutt came to Canada in 1827, locating at TorontOy
where he was a general merchant for seven years ; from there he came to Wentworth
County, now the site of Brantford, in 18^9 ; and finally removed his family and
located here in business. He went from here to Cayuga, Haldimand County, and
subsequently to Toronto, where he died in January, 1866, at the age of eighty-three
years. He was married tMrice, the first time to Mary Nightingale, a native of York-
shire, by whom he had 3 children, one dying in infancy, our subject and sister being
the only ones coming to Canada. Mrs. Cockshutt died in April, 1840, and he married
for his second wife, Elizabeth Fowles, also of Yorkshire. Mr. I. Cockshutt came to
Brantford in 1829. au'l in 1832 permanently located here ; being a clerk and man-
ager for his father until 1840. In that year, in company with his sister, he opened
out a general mercantile trade, and was in business forty-two years. He was married
in September, 1846, to Margaret Gemmel, a native of Scotland, by whom 1 child waa
bom, Mary M., now wife of George Kippax, of Brantford. Margaret died in August,
1847, and he was again married in September, 1850, to Elizabeth Foster, a native of
Lancastershire, England. Eleven children were born of this union, of whom 8 are
living, viz. : James G., in foundry business, Brantford ; Charles, importer of dry
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 503
goods, Toronto ; William F. has a hardware and grocery establishment, Brantford ;
Frank, also in this city in the dry goods and clothing business ; and Edmund is a
farmer of Brantford Township. The others are Elizabeth, Ellen and Harry, the last
two being stiil at school. Mr. Cockshutt and wife are members of the Independent
Church. He is indeiiendent in policies, is President of Brantford Gas Co., and also
of Brantford Water- Works Co. He has met with very fair success in business, and
is one of the oldest and most respected merchants in the city.
WILLIAM C. CORSON, M.D., is the seventh son of the late Rev. Robert Corson,
one of the pioneer MethodiBt Ministers of this country, who had when a young man^
served as a volunteer in the Wnr of 1812-1 5, in the stirring campaign which ended at
Lnndy's Lane. Tiie subject of this sketch was bom in the Township of Darlington on
the 7th of March, 1 829. His literary education was received at the University of
Victoria Collegd, but his medical studies were pursued entirely in the City of New
York under the tuition of his brother, the late Dr. J. W. Corson. He graduated with
honour in the year 1854 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons — his graduating
thesis on,'' Inflammatory Croup " exciting a great deal of interest and discussion among
the professors of that time-honoured institution. Aft-er receiving his degree he en-
tered upon the practice of his profession, and was at once appointed attending physician
of the New York Dispensary, a position he honourably filled for the next twelve years.
The laige experience gained here proved a most excellent training school, giving a
familiarity with disease in all its forms not easily otherwise obtained. On account of
failing health and the exactions of a lucr itive practice, he was advised by his medical
confreres to leave New York for the more bracing air of Canada. In the year 1866 he
acted upon this suggestion, and settled at once in Brantford, where he has ever since
followed the practice of medicine. When the Ontario Instituti<m for the Education
of the Blind was founded in 1872, Dr. Corson received the appointment of its Physi-
cian, and he has creditably filled the position ever since. Dr. Corson has at times con-
tributed the results of his experience in various articles to the medical journaLs ot the day,
especially in a case of " Lead Poisoning," " Removal of Polypus from Body of Uterus,"
and in an extended paper upon " Retroversion of the Unimpregnated Uterus.'' In man-
ner he is quiet and unobtrusive, and owing to a delicate constitution, he now avoids as
much as possible the more arduous dutien of his calling.
DAVISON k ADAMS, ale, wine and liquor merehants, Colbome Street, opposite
Opera House, Brantford, commenced their business in September, 1879, in Market
Lane, under the Woodbine Hotel, where they operated the Brantford Bottling Cellar,
and in this department alone handled consignments from eight different breweries,
principally Carling's and Labatt's, London, Ont They at first employed but three
men during the two years they occupied above-mentioned premisesi^ although they
supplied nearly all the liquor houses in Brantford, Paris, &c., with bottled ale. On
March 1st, 1882, finding their connection fast increasing, they removed to their pre-
sent more commodious premises, and extended their business to an extensive Itrade in
imported wines, liquors, and also cictars. They have met with mos: encouraging success
since commencing business, and they turn over an average of fifteen to twenty hogs-
heads of ale per month. James Davison, previous to the formation of this partnership,
was engaged in the liquor business, and John H. Adams in the grocery business, both
in Brantford, where they have both resided tor about ten years.
GBORGE DEMPSTER, hatter and furrier, Colborne Street, Brantford, was bom
in Sand Bank, Avgyleshire, Scotland, May, 21, 1851, and is a son of George Dempster,
a native of Renfrewshire, Scotland, a commission merchant and shipmaster, and Danish
Vice-Consul for some years. He came to Canada on a visit, and died at Brantford in
August, 1871. He was married to Cecilia Fullerton of Redstone, Perthshire, Scotland,
• 504 ^ HI8T0BT OF BHANT COUNTY.
aod they were the parente of five children, four of whom sarvire, Geoxy^, the sobject
of this biography, being the only one in Brant Coonty. Their mother reeideB in
Chicago with another son. George Dempster was reared and well educated in Sootland,
and was engaged, along with the rest of the family, in the sugar refinery basinesB ;
duiing this time, which lasted for some* years, he made a trip to South America. In
1870 he went to the West Indies for the benefit of his health, and there became engaged
in su^ar growing. After remaining a year, and on hearing of the death of his fiither, he
set out for Canada. After arrival, he was engaged by John Gillespie k Co., battera,
Toronto, from 1875 to 1879, and was junior member of the firm of Briggs & Dempeter,
wholesale hatters, Toronto, and, on the dissolution of partnership, came to Brantlbiti,
where he entered upon his present business. Mr. Dempster does a jobbing retail
business in hats, cape, furs, etc., etc., and manufactures furs all the year round. He
has met with the success that is bound to follow in the footst^n of indusby and
perseverance. He is an elder in Zion Presbyterian Church, and Superintendent of the
Presbvterian Sabbath school on the south side of the Grand River ; is a member of
the A. 0. U. W., and in politics is a Reformer. Mr. Dempster was married December
27, 1877, to Charlotte £. Wood, daughter of Rev. John Wood, Pastor of the Congre-
gational Church in Brantford for twenty years, now a resident of Ottawa. To this
union has been bom one son, George L. Mr& Dempster is also a member of Zion
Church.
DR. ALFRED DIGBY, the first physician of the Town of Brantford, was bom in
County Meath, Ireland, and in 1829, while a young man, emigrated to America, and
for a time located at Montreal. At the latter place he married Catharine Baaby, a
native of Montreal, by whom he had a family of four boys and two girls, three of tlie
former and one of the latter being now the sole survivors of the fanuly. At the time
of his emigration he was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and a
physician of considerable experience and of unquestioned ability. Afler a short resi-
dence at Montreal he removed to Hamilton, where for a time he engaged in the practice
of his profession with marked success. Subsequently he came to Brantford, and
devoted the remainder of his useful life to the care of a large and steadily increasing
practice. He died in 1866. He was a prominent man in political circles, and in con-
nection with his practice took an active part in all municipal afihirs, filled the chair of
Mayor of the town, and at different periods occupied nearly every ofiice in the gift of
the people.
DR JAMES W. DIGBY, a prominent physician of Brantford, and a son of the first
physician of the city, was bom here in 1842. He received his primary education in
the public schools, and afterwards entered the Gralt Collegiate Institute under Dr.
Tassie. He niltriculated at Toronto University, and after leaving that institution
entered McGill Medical College at Montreal, from which he graduated in 1862. Im-
mediately after his graduation he went to New York City, and for a time practised in
the hospitals of that city. During the American Rebellion he received Uie appoint-
ment of Acting Assistant Surgeon, and was stationed at the hospital at Point Lookout,
Md. After the battle of ^tone River he participated in the campaign through the
Western States as Hospital Surgeon until the battle of Chickamauga, when he was
stationed in the field hospital at Chattanooga in charge of several wards. Some months
later he received the appointment of Regimental Surgeon of the 16th U. S. In&ntiy,
and with that regiment took part in the campaign through the South, via Nashville,
^ T«nn., and Augusta, Gra. He returned to Camida in June, 1866, and since then has
conducted a laige and lucrative practice in the City of Brantford. He has filled the
positions of Deputy Reeve, Town Councillor (one year), Mayor (three years), and mem-
ber of the College Board of Trustees (nine years).
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 505
JOHN ELLIOTT, contractor and builder, Brantford, was bom at Heck, in the
parish of Snaith, Yorkshire, England, August 15, 1822, and is a son of the late Thomas
Elliott, a native of Pontefract, Yorkshire, and a farmer by occupation. He died in
England about the year '1865, at the age of 72 years. He was married to Ann
Branington, whose mother died at London, Ont., at the ripe old age of 106 yeais, 9
months. Her maiden name was Mary Blythe. Thomas Elliott and his wife had 8
chUdien, 4 of whom reside in Canada, and the eldest in England. The mother died
about the year 1852, aged 54 years. John Elliott, the subject of our sketch, was
bxought up in England, and left there on May 25, 1842, for Canada. (He was
apprenticed seven years to the stone-cutters' trade, and served in the same shop as his
brother, who is now proprietor of that same yard). On leaving England he sailed
firom Hull for Quebec, thence to Montreal, Kingston and Toronto. Remaining there a
short time, he moved over to Cleveland, Ohio, and other parts of the United States,
for about a year. In September, 1844, he went back to Toronto, and there worked at
his trade for John Ritchie, contractor and builder, from September, 1844, to June,
1846. In that year he became associated with Alexander Wilson and James Metcalf,
under the firm name of Wilson, Elliott & Metcalf, as stone-cutters and builders,
which partnership was dissolved in two years. Mr. Elliott then went into business
for himself at the ibot of Bay Street, Toronto, and here he remained until July 14,
1850, when he came to Brantford with his brother William, and commenced business
under the firm name of J. & W. Elliott. This partnership lasted for about three
years, and the two brothers subsequently left for London, Ont. William after a time
took charge of the business in ^he latter place, and John returned to Brantford. In
1871 Mr. Elliott took the contract to erect the Central Prison, at Toronto, and com-
pleted it in 1874. He also erected the Post Office in that city. Elliott & Melville
built the Parliament Buildings at Quebec, in 1 859, and Mr. Elliott erected the Court
House and Gaol in Bruce, and built the addition to the County Buildings in Brant-
ford. William and John Elliott did the cut stone- work in the same buildings. They
also supplied the greater part of the cut stone-work in the Town and City of Brant-
ford for many years, besides erecting numerous buildings. Mr. Elliott also erected
Hughes Bros.' Buildings, Toronto ; did the mason- work for the County Buildings in
Norfolk; built the addition to the Normal School, Toronto, in 1870-1871 ; supplied
the mason-work for Hon. William M 'Master's store on Yonge Street ; and Shaw &
TumbuU's building on Wellington Street ; the mason-work of the " Mammoth Block ;"
also of buildings for Thomas OUiwell, Front Street ; Colson & Gilmore's Block ; and
the mason-work on the Lieut. -Crovemor's house, all in Toronto. Railways also did
not escape Mr. Elliott's enterprise, for we find him engaged in executing a large
amount of work on the Buffalo and Lake Huron and Grand Trunk lines, at the time
of the construction of those roads. Mr. Elliott is a member of Doric (Masonic)
Lodge , is a regular attendant of the services in Wellington Street Methodist Church,
and is one of the oldest trustees in that church. He was a member of the School
Board for four years ; has been Reeve and Deputy Reeve at various times, and Mayor
for three years, and Councillor for thirteen years. Mr. Elliott was married September
3, 1846, to Sarah Preeho, daughter of David and Jane Preeho, a native of Glasslough,
County Monaghan, Ireland. She was bom May 10, 1827, and came to Canada in
Apnl, 1842. To this union there were bom 10 children---5 boys and 5 girls— of
whom 5 survive, viz., Jane Ann, wife of Frederick YanNorman, an attorney at
Minneapolis, Minn. ; Thomas, coal merchant, Brantford ; Mary, wife of Rev. George
Bridgman, D.D. Methodist Church, Principal of Idme Seminary, State of New York ;
Sarah, wife of C. A. GatcheU, Civil Engineer, Ridgeway, Pennsylvania ; and W.
George, with C. A. GatcheU, on railway works. Mr. Elliott's first wife died March
30
506 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
14, 1868, and he again married April 19, 1869, the partner of his choice being Mary
Jane McKenney, a native of Glengarry, Ont Their family numbers two children,
Grace and Richard, the former deceased. Mr. Elliott cut the present tombstone for
Captain Joseph Brant, now at the Mohawk Church, near Brantford, in the fall of 1850,
before hw remains were removed tfeere.
THOMAS ELLIOTT, dealer in coal, salt, plaster and cement, Brantford, is a life
resident of the city. He was bom Dec. 10, 1850, andiis a son of John Elliott, whose
biography will be found elsewhere. He received his early training in his native town,
and was engaged with his father in the contracting and building business from 1865
till 1874. He then purchased the coal stock and trade of Thomas Martindale, which
he has since carried on successfully, being the second largest dealer in the city. Mr.
Elliott is a member of the Masonic Order, having joined the Order in Toronto, was at
one time the head, both in Canada and the United States, of the '' Maccabees," Master
Workman of the A.O.U.W. Lodge of Brantford, and Chief (Councillor of Brant Lodge
of Chosen Friends. He is a Conservative in politics, and has served as City Alderman.
He married Nov. 18, 1874, Ida J. Baldwin, a native of Brantford Township, by whom
ho has one child — Sarah Lillian. Mr. Elliott is a member of the congregation of
Wellington Street Methodist Church, and Mrs. Elliott attends the services of the same
denomination. Mr. Elliott is always willing to lend a hand in anything that may be
called of interest to the residents of Brantford and the public in general. He is also
a member of the Public School Board for Brantford, representing the Brant Ward in
that capacity.
ALEXANDER FAIR, manufacturer of ci^rs, and wholesale and retail merchant in
liquors and groceries, Colbome Street, East Ward, Brantford, established his grocery
and liquor business on a very small scale in the present premises in 1862, and his
business steadily increasing, he commenced about the year 1873 to manufacture cigars,
which industry has so rapidly advanced and prospered with him, that he is now pro-
prietor of one of the largest cigar factories in Ontario. He turns out an average of
120,000 cigars per month, and ships not only all over the older settled parts of Canada,
but also to the North- West Territory, on the one hand, and the transatlantic markets
an the other. The variety of brands numbers some twenty, among which are the
favourites, " Punch," five cents ; " Henry Clay," tea cents ; ** Patience," a new brand
closely resembling a ten cent cigar, five cents ; ** Prize Leaf," &c., &c. The wholesale
and retail grocery and liquor departments are very thriving, and turn over about
$1 30,000 annually. Nine hands are employed in the store, and from 35 to ^40 in the
cigar department. Mr. Fair is a member, and ha^ been Warden for seven yeats, of St.
Jude's (Episcopal) Church, and is one of the leading and active members of the Conser-
vative party in the County of Brant.
B. F. FITCH, barrister, of the law firm of Fitch & Lees, Brantford, was bom in
Oxford County, near Woodstock, Ontario, April 5th, 1831, and is a son of Kev. fi.
Fitch, a native of Vermont, and a pioneer B.4ptist minister of this Province, who first
located at Oxford in Oxford County. He then went to Blenheim, and remained in
that county until 1848, when he moved to Port Rowan in Norfolk County. About
1865 he moved to Kingsville, Essex County, where he died in 1878, aged seventy-
four years. He was married to Amanda S. Corlis, a native of Townsend Township,
Norfolk County, Ontario. Of their seven children, six are living, as is also Mrs.
Fitch, who is now seventy-two yeai-s of age. Our subject, B. F. Fitch, was reared
almost entirely in Oxford Co., thence went to Norfolk Co., where he was a student
of Mr. Robert McLean, now secretary of a prominent insurance company in Toronto.
When 17 years of age he began teaching, and taught for 12 years, principally in
Simcoe and Toronto, being English Master in the Model School of the latter place
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 507
for four years. In 1859 he graduated from the UniYersitj of Toronto, having taken
a scholarahip each year of his attendance, and a silver medal at the close. After
leaving the Normal School he was articled to the late Chief -Justice Hanison, study-
ing law nnder him. Mr. Fitch commenced practising his profession in Brantford in
1865, and has since been actively engaged in iL About 1881, Mr. James E. Lees
became a law partner, and the firm enjoy the largest practice of any firm in Brant
Connty. Mr. Lees studied law with Bethune, Osier & Moss, of Toronto, and gradu<
ated at Toronto University. The firm are solicitors for the Bank of Montreal, the
Royal Loan and Savings Company. Mr. Fitch has given his whole time and atten-
tion to business, and it has proved very remunerative. For the last twelve years he
has taken an active interest in educational matters, and du; ing that time he was
Chairman of the Collegiate Institute Board, and was largely instrumental in building
and starting that institution in its present prosperous condition. He was one of the
incorporators of the Brantford Toung Ladies' College, and for some years was its
Vice-President and a Director. He has also been President of the Mechanics' Institute.
In politics Mr. Fitch \b Clear Grit — Reformer, and for fifteen years has been Secre-
tary of *he Reform Association of Brant County. He has officiated as Alderman of
the City of Brantford, and was married May 4th, 1865, to Miss Elizabeth Ruth
Robinson, daughter of Isaac Robinson, of Toronto ; they have two children, Clarence
Russell and Edith Maud. Mr. Fitch is a member of the Baptist Church, and Mrs.
Fitch belongs to the Canada Methodist Church.
E. L. GOOLD, of J. O. Wisner, Son & Co., manufacturers of agricultural imple-
ments, and of Goold <& Agnew, hardware merchants, Brantford, is a son of F. P.
€k)old, who was bom in New Hampshire in 1813. His father was a farmer by occu-
pation, and spent his earlier years in agricultural pursuits. He subsequently went to
Rochester, New York, and was there employed as a clerk ; he also engaged in the
grain business, and about 1835 or 1840 cams to Canada, locating in Brantford. He
here formed a copartnership with P. G. YanBibcklin, and the firm commenced the
manufacture of stoves, being the pioneers in that business in Brantford, and among
the earliest in the Dominion. Mr. A. B. Bennet subsequently became a partner of
Mr. Croold, and the firm of Goold & Bennet enlarged their manufacturing facilities,
and carried on a steadily increasing and lucrative business for many years. At one
time Mr. Goold was interested in the Waterous Engine Works, and also in the refin-
ing of oils. He was a manufacturer of stoneware pottery for quite a period, and
was an inspector of an insurance company. At the time of his death he was on busi-
ness at Ottawa. He was a member of the Congregational denomination, was a strong
Reformer, and once served as a member of the Brantford City Council. Mr. Goold
married Miss S. C. Lyman, a resident of Brantford. They were the parents of 6
children, 4 of whom are now living. Mrs. Goold died about 1875. E. L. Goold was
reared in the City of Brantford, and in early life became a member of the firm of
Goold & Agnew, stove and hardware merchants. In October, 1881, he became asso-
ciated as a member of the firm of J. O. Wisner, Son <& Co., and is also senior member
of the firm of Goold & Co., manufacturers of refrigerators. Mr. Goold is yet a young
man, of a modest and retiring disposition, but one among the energetic and pushing
business men of the city.
ROBERT GRANT, merchant tailor, under Stratford's Opera House, Brantford,
was bom in the Parish of D arris, Kincardineshire, Scotland, June 26, 1823, and is a
son of Robert and Jane (Robertson) Grant, the former of whom died in 1857, and the
latter about 1859. Robert Gi*ant, our subject, is the only child, and was brought up
in Scotland, commencing to earn his own living at the early age of seven years. When
fourteen years old he learned his present trade in the adjoining parish (Maryculter) .
508 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
he was apprenticed five yeara, and then worked on four years longer at the same place.
He next moved into the City of Aberdeen, where he followed his trade for two years,
and in the county (Aberdeenshire) for following three years. This now brings Mr.
Grant's life into the year 1851, which found him emigrating to Canada and remaining
in the City of Quebec from the spring to the fall of the year. He then went to
Hamilton, Ont., and in 1853 to Brantford, where he engaged as cutter for J. H. Moore,
and was also employed by James Woody att ; he subsequently worked on his own
account for three years. For the following three years he was in Taylor & Grant's
establishment, and also worked for various parties in Brantford, Dundas and Guelph,
and returning to Brantford, obtained a idne years' engagement with William Grant
In April, 1880, Mr. Eobert Grant again commenced business for himself, and has con-
tinued ever since, doing a better trade than he expected. He was married in January,
1848, to Annie McCormack, a native of Aberdeenshit^, Scotland, who died the year
their only ehild was born. His name is I'homas, and he is at present in the United
States. Mr. Grant married, for second time, Nov. 4, 1858, Mary Latham, a native of
New York. She and her husband are members of the First Baptist Church. He is
a Reformer in politics, and a member of Gore Lodge, No. 34, 1.O.O.F., since 1856.
THOMAS GRANTHAM, retired, Bi-antford, was born in Yorkshire, England,
February 9th, 1809, and is a son of Thomas Grantham, also a native of Yorkshii^e, and
a farmer by occupation, who lived in England up to the day of his death. His wifb
also died, in England. Their family numbered twelve children, of whom ten probably
are still living. Thomas, our subject, was reared in Yorkshire, and in 1827 came out
to Canada, and resided for five years in Little York, now Toronto. There he learned
the blacksmithing trade, and in 1832 moved to Mount Pleasant, Brant County, where
he worked for a farmer in order to gain an insight into farming pursuits. He then
purchased a farm of fifty acres, which he some time afterward rented out, and about the
same period, Nov. 9th, 1840, was married to Ruth Gumett, a native of Sussex, England,
and daughter of George Gumett and Ann Dunaway. After his marriage he rented a
brick-yard from Rev. Mr. Lugs:ar, and carried on brick-making business for three or
four years. Selling the brick-yard out to Calvin Halton, he removed to Mount
Pleasant, and went on his old farm of fifty acres after buying fifty acres more on the
opposite side of the road. There he resided and carried on farming operations for
about thirty years. By this time his farm had increased to 175 acres, which he sold,
and moved into Brantford in May, 1871. When Mr. Grantham first undertook farm-
ing life, he took thirty bushels of wheat to Dundas, Went worth County, and sold it at
fifty cents per bushel, the trip taking two days. He sold fine potatoes at ten cents
per bushel in trade ; in fact, in those days everything was traded, except tea, which was
a cash article. Mr. Grantham was largely instrumental in building the tree bridge
over the Grand River, which cost him, over and above time and trouble in canvassing
for the <* sinews of war,'' $100. He was rated a life member of the Agricultuial
Society as an acknowledgment of his services in securing their present grounds.
He generally attended the First Baptist Church, of which his wife is a member, and in
politics is a Liberal Mr. Grantham is a thorough sportsman, apd his collection of
birds and animals, numbering some one hundred and fifty specimens-— o^ " to his own
gun " and all stuffed by himself — ^is an evidence of his being a son of Nimrod, a dis-
ciple of Izaak Walton, and a skilled taxidermist. Mr. and Mrs. Grantham have had
a family of eight children, of whom six survive. Charles is a carriage-maker and
blacksmith in Cains ville ; Alfred is a builder in Mount Pleasant ; Alice, wife of
Dugan McEwen, resides on the old homestead at Mount Pleasant ; John is a music
dealer in Gait, Waterloo County.
EGERTON GRIFFIN, M.D., of Trinity College, Toronto, and M.D. of University
of New York City, i& the fourth son of the late £. C. Griffin, Esq. of Waterdown, Ont.,
BIOORAPHIGAX SKETCHES. 509
and grandson of the late Smith Griffin, Esq., of Smith ville, Ont., belon^g to a U. E.
Loyalist family 'of Welsh origin. Dr. Griffin was educated at the Hnmilton High
School, and commenced the study of medicine in Toronto in 1849, graduating in -1853.
After spending a year in the hospitals of New York City and taking a degree there, he
commenced practice in Brantford in 1854, where he has ever since practised. He was
appointed Surgeon to the Brant Gaol in 1855, Physician to the Mohawk Institute in
1854, Coroner for the County of Brant in 1854, and Medical Officer to the Canada life
Insurance Co. in 1856, all of which positions he still holds. He was appointed Surgeon
to 2nd Battalion of Brant Militia in 1858, a Justice of the Peace tor Brantfoid in
1859, and has heen a member of the Brantford Public School Board since 1880. Dr.
Griffin married Edith, daughter of the late A. R. Smith, Esq., of Biantford, by whom
he has one child, Mary, wife of Dr. Wm. T. Harris, of Branttbrd.
THOMAS W. HALL, retired, Brantford, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England,
Nov. 16, 1824, and is a son of John Hall, aLo a native of Leeds, and a machinist by
trade. He came to the United States in 1846, landing at New Orleans, from which
city he went to the State of Wisconsin, where he died. His wife, the mother of Thos.
W., died in Leeds, and her husband remarried. After his father's death, the subject
of our sketch and his brother Samuel went to Milwaukie, where they worked at their
trade. They then went to Toronto, but not finding work, removed to Niagara, where
they obtained work on the steamer Magnet in the dock-yards, as well as on two pro-
peUers. Mr. T. W. Hall subsequently went to Bu£falo to fill an engagement in the
Shephard Iron Works, of which firm C. H. Waterous, Senr.,' was a member. After
working there some time, and Mr. Waterous coming to Brantford, Mr. Hall followed
in the spring of 1849, by request of Mr. Waterous bringing his brother Samuel and his
stepmother with him. They went from Buffiilo to Port Col borne by steamer, and in
the latter place met the father of Ignatius Cockshutt. At Port Colborne they took
boat on the Grand River, but the water being high and rough, for there was a consid-
erable food, the captain of the boat refused to proceed further than Cayuga. They
then placed their furniture on a canal boat, and having reached a farm in Onondaga
Township, owned by William Burrell, they stayed there all night, and on the
following morning Mr. Hall and his brother came on to Brantford by way of
Cainsville. Thomas soon found employment in the machine shop, and his brother in
the foundry, of P. C. VanBrocklin & Co., with which Mr. Waterous, Senr, was con-
nected. Mr. Hall and an apprentice were the only hands in the machine shop for
some time. This building stood on the west end of the present brick structure.
About two years later Mr. Waterous conceived the idea of building engines there, and
a couple of millwrights came from the United States to do the millwright work for
VanBrocklin & Mead's saw-mill. The engine and machinery were constructed under
great difficulties, the fitting being all done by hand, there being no planer, shaper, or
such labour-savinij: machinery. After c«»n8iderable labour the mill was started with a
" direct-action " 25 horse-power engine for saw-mills, this being the first one in that
section of the country. Mr. Wolverton, of Paris, ordered the second one, which was
constructed under the same difficulties as the first. The present Waterous Engine
Works were then commenced, and this was the starting of the large business in Brant-
ford, and Mr. Hall, who put together and started the first eight engines that were sent
out from the shops, probably deserves more than great credit for this success. For
some years previous to 1877, Mr. Hall held the position of Superintendent of the works,
which he resigned on July Ist of that year, and retired, having, by industry and
economy, amassed considerable property. He erected some neat little dwellings in
Hall's Avenue, near the G.T.R. shops, and has besides a nice little residence for him-
self; also some two-story brick residences in Brant Ward. Mr. Hall was thrice mar-
510 mSTORT OF BRANT COUNTY.
ried — in 1852 to Mary C. Bnrrell, who died in 1867; his second wife was Milioent
Forde, sister of R. J. an<i Jackson Forde, whom he married in 1 868, and by whom he
had one child, Edith. This wife died in Jan., 1877. His third marriagfe was with
Eliza Biggar, of Mt. Pleasant, in July, 1881. She is a member of Brant Avenue
Methodist Chnrch, and Mr. Hall is an attendant of the services of that chnrch. He
is in politics a Reformer, and was Town Councillor during the year of the visit of the
Prince of Wales to Brantford; 1860. •
JOSHUA S. HAMILTON, wholesale wine merchant and manufacturers' agent,
Brantff'rd, was bom at Hamilton, Ontario, in 1848, and was brought up in the
Township of Bi-antford, having been educated at the public schools cf that city.
He acted as clerk in a wholesale exjiort provision house in New York City for
two years, and after that entered the employment of Ignatius Cockshutt, merchant,
Brantford, with whom he remained eighteen months. Subsequently he entered the
retail grocery business in Brantford, and carried it on for two years. In 1873, Mr.
Hamilton formed a partnership with Mr. R. S. Dunlop, under the firm name of
Hamilton, Dunlop & Co. This arrangement continued for five years, when Mr. Dunlop
retired from the firm, and Mr. Hamilton carried it on alone for three years under the
old firm name. *He also did a general agency and commission business in the City of
Montreal, under the firm name of J. S. Hamilton & Co., which he joined with his
Brantford house in September, 1881, retaining the various agencies for Canada, all of
which, with others obtained since, he carries on from his present headquarters in Brant-
ford. Among the foreign houses whose Canadian representative Mr. Hamilton is, may
be mentioned the foUowin:; leading British and continental firms : Ayala & Co., of A j.,
France, champagnes ; A. Matignon & Co., of Cognac, France, brandies ; M. Boitard,
Cognac, brandies ; L. L. Latour, Beaune, Burgundies ; T. Lasteau & Co., Liboume,
Gironde clarets ; D. G. Ross, Ben Wyvis Distillery, Dingwall, Scotland, Scotch
whiskeys : Taunus Springs, Gross Karben, mineral water ; R. VanZeller, Oporto, port
wines ; John S. Shiels k Sons, of Leith, Scotland, Scotch whiskeys ; Wm. Younger &
Co., of Edinburgh, Scotland, ales ; Wra. Edmunds, Jr., & Co., of Liverpool, bottlers
Bass' ale and Guinness' stout. A general stock of all the above goods are held in the
firm's extensive warehouses on Dalhousie Street, Brantford, and importing orders are
also taken for direct shipment. In the production of Canadian wines Mr. Hamilton has
always taken a great interest, and from his connection therewith, more especially with
the great vineyards of Pelee Island, in Lake Erie, has gained for liimself the appellation
of ** The Canadian Wine King." Although a hard-working business man, Mr.
Hamilton has given much time to public afiairs, having been a member of the first
City Council of Brantford, and having taken an active part in the inauguration of the
Brantford Southern Fair in 1878 and two following years, acting in the various capa-
cities of Director, General Su|^rintendent and President. Largely interested in the
wine and spirit trade, it was natural that he should take a great interest in the protec-
tion of the interests of the licensed liquor trade of Canada, and in the Dunkin Act
agitation of 1878 and 1879 he took a leading part in behalf of the licensed victuallers;
and upon the organization of their Provincial Association at Toronto in 1881, known
as " The Ontario Trade BenevoL nt Association," was unanimously elected President.
In the year following Mr. Hamilton was re-elected to the position. Of the School
Board of Brantford, to which Mr. Hamilton belongs, he has proved himself a useful
member. In politics he is a Conservative. He is a good type of the sturdy Canadian
bui<iness man, who unaided has worked his way to the foremost rank in his business,
and become the head of one of the largest firms in the wholesale wine trade of Canada.
ROBERT HAMILTON, nurseryman, of Elcho Place P.O., near Brantford, was bom
in the County Armagh, Ireland, in 1819, and is a son of Peter and Margaret Hamil-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 511
■
ton, who both died in Ireland, their native land. Robert, the youngest of three chil-
dren, and the only one living in Canada, came to the land of his adoption in 1847,
bringing with him his wife and one child. They set out from Ireland ^ith two
children, but one died on the way, and the uther shortly after landing at Hamilton,
Ontario. In that city Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton resided six years, when he came to
his present location, and engaged in the business which his experience in Hamilton has
enabled him to conduct in a most fair and profitable manner. He began on a small
scale, and by dint of hard work, honesty and frugality, has gained for himself a compe-
tence. Kecently he has taken his youngest son (Robert L.) into partnership with him,
with the intention of still further increasing the business. Mr. Hamilton is a con-
sistent member of the W. M. Church.
HON. ARTHUR STURGIS HARDY, member of the Ontario Parliament and
Provincial Secretary and Registrar, was born December 14, 1837, at Mount Pleasant,
County of Brant, and is a son of Russell and Juletta (Sturgis) Hardy, both of whom
were descendants of U. £. Loyalists, and are natives of Canada. The ancestittl families
of both catjie to Canada nearly one hundred years ago, and Russell Hardy was at one
time a prominent merchant in Brantford, having at an earlier perioc^ been a merchant
and then farmer at Mount Pleasant. The subject of this sketoh was educated at the
private school successfully kept for some years at Mount Pleasant by Professor W.
W. Nelles, M.A., at the Brautford County Grammar ISchool, and also at the Rock-
wood Academy. He studied law at Brantford, completed his studies at Toronto under
the late Chief-Justice Hariison and Thomas Hodgius, Esq., M.A., and was called to
the Bar at £aster Term, 1865. He has been for some years a^ the head of the Brant
County Bar. In 1867 he was appointed City Solicitor ; in 1875 was elected a Bencher
of the Law Society of Ontario, and was created a Queen's Counsel in 1876. Mr. Hardy
is a member of the firm of Hardy, Wilkes and Jones, who do an extensive Common Law
and Chancery business :\t Brantford. As a fluent, animated and eloquent speaker, a
powerful reasoner, and a successful jury lawyer and advocate, Mi*. Hardy ranks among
the foremost membei^ of his profession in the western part of the Province. Fe^v
men of his profession in this part have a more honourable and succeasful record. He
was first elected to Parliament to represent South Brant in April, 1873, on the resig-
nation ot the late Hon. Edmund Burke Wood, and was re-elected by acclamation in
January, 1875 ; entered the Provincial Government as Provincial Secretary and Regis-
trar, in March, 1877, and was re-elected by acclamation, after an unusually spirited
contest in June, 1879, and was again re-elected in 1883 ; in both instances by an
increased majority. Mr. Hardy in politics belongs to the advanced wing of the Liberal
party ; indeed, his views on most questions are rather of a Radical than merely Liberal
character, and he is a leading man in his party in the Province. The office of Pro-
vincial Secretary under Mr. Hardy has assumed an importance not formerly l^elonging
to it, from the fact that the duties of the position have been more than doubled. There
have been added to it the Immigration Branch, and Mr. Hardy has performed I the
duties of Commissioner of Immi<(ration, the Liquor License Bi-anch, the Insurance
Branch, the Provincial Board of Health, and the Inspection of Division Courts, as
well as the labours appertaining to the incor|»oration of Joint Stock Companies. He
has also been on several occasions, and is at time of the present writing, acting Minister
of Education, and has more than once been acting Attorney-General and Minister of
Public Works during the absence of the heads of these departments from the country.
He ^as married January 16, 1870, to Mary, daughter of Hon. Mr. Justice Morrison,
of Toronto (one of the Judges of the Court of Appeal of Ontario), and has a family
of four children. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy are members of the Church of EngUnd.
GEORGE HARDY, dealer in confectionery, fruit and game, Market Street, Brant-
ford, was born in the City of London, England, on Christmas Day, 1829. His parents
612 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
both died when he was very yoang, and when about seven years of age he aooompanied
his uncle to Canada, landing at Quebec. He was brought up principally by Dr. Don-
combe, of Norfolk County, Ontario, and remained with him till he was nineteen yean
old, when he went to Wateiford and learned the moulder's trade, at which he worked
for nine or ten years. He came to Brantford in 1847 or 1848, and worked for Goold &
Bennett, stove-founders, for three months. He then went to Gainsville by canal ; thence
by the steamboat Litile Brantford to Dunnville ; and thence by steamer again to Baffiilo,
where he worked one year, when he went to Cleveland, Ohio, and from there to Cin-
cinnati and New Orleans ; thence back to Cleveland, and finally to Brantford again.
There he acted as foreman for (ioold & Bennett for four or five years, when he entered
the fruit business. In the fall of 1860 Mr. Hardy removed to Windsor, and resided
in Detroit, Michigan, one season. Again returning to Brantford, he engaged in his
present business, and in 1869 purchased the property he now occupies. He baa
enjoyed excellent success in his particular line of trade. Mr. Hardy is a member of
Brant Lodge, No. 45, Masonic, and also of Harmony Lodge, LO.O.F. He was an original
member of Gore Lodge, which he left to establish Harmony Lodge, being now one of
the trustees. In politics he is a Reformer. He has been a member of the Town
Council for four years, and Alderman for five years. He was a member of the Inde»
pendent Washington Company of the early fire department, which bought its own
engine and paid its own wav. Mr. Hardy attends the Congregational Church. On
Nov. 4th, 1851, he married Mary Marshall, a native of DumfHes, Waterloo County,
Ont., by whom he has had a family of four children, two surviving? — Greorgn F. and
Maria. His wife and daughter are members of the Congregational Church. Mr Hardy
is a self-educated and self-made man.
JAM£S HARLEY, barrister, Brantford, is a son of Archibald Harley, whoee
sketch appears in this work, and was bom in Burford Township, August 15, 1850.
He remained on the home farm until 1874, when he entered the Collegiate Institute,
which he attended one and a half years. He then entered the law office of Hardy A
Wilkes, and was vrith them four yeans. He then finished his studies with Blake, Kerr,
Boyd & Cassels, and took out a certificate of fitness in November, 1880. He was
called to the Bar, February 1, 1881, and went into partnership at St. Catharines with
Ewart, Davidson & Campbell, as junior partner, and three months later came to Brant>
ford, where he has met with fair success. He is a member of Emmanuel Methodist
Church, and of the M. K Book Committee at Hamilton, having been appointed by the
last two General Conferences. He is also one of the Trustees of the church. He is a
Liberal in politics, and Secretary of the Reform Committee for the City of Brantford.
For 1882 he was President of the Farringdon Debating Society. He was married
November 2, 1881, to Annie Madison, daughter of Captain Madison, of Port Hope.
ALANSON HARRIS, of A. Harris, Son & Co., was born near IngersoU, Oxford
County, Ont, April 1, 1816. He is a son of John Harris, a native of New York,
who came to Canada when about six years of age, and was a minister of the Baptist
Church, at one time located at Westminster and afterwards at Townsend, for twenty
years. He resided at Mount Pleasant, Brant County, for twelve years, and then
moved to IngersoU, where he died about fifteen years ago. He married Catharine
Duygert, a native of New York State and of German parentage, by whom there were
ten children, five still living, Alanson, our subject, being the only one in this country.
The mother died about twelve years ago. Alanson Harris received his early training,
which was but limited, in Townsend, where there were few schools in those days. In
early life he engaged in farmicg, and also had charge of a saw-mill at B jston, and after-
wards at Whiteman's Creek, in Brant County He then removed to Beamsville and
commenced the foundry business, in which he was engaged for sixteen years. In May,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 513
1871, he came to Brantford, and with hia son John opened an extensive manufacturing
establishment. Mr. Harris \a a member of the First Baptist Church, and a Reformer
in politics. He was married October, 1840, to Maiy Morgan, a native of New York,
and of Welsh descent. Their family numbered twelve children, six sons and six
daughters, five now living : John, of A. Harris, Son k Co. ; Elmore, a Baptist minister,
of Toronto ; Nellie, wife of Alfred Popplewell, druggist, Brantford ; Minnie, wife of
Fi^erick Chal craft, book-keeper for Wm. Paterson, M.P., Brantford ; and Thomas
M., book-keeper for A. Harris, Son & Co. Mrs. Harris is a member of the Baptist
Church and a daughter of Thomas Morgan, a Baptist minister originally from Wales.
JOHN HARRIS, of the firm of A. Harris, Son & Co. (Limited), manufacturers of
harvesting machinery, mowers, reapers, and self-binding harvesters, Brantford, was
born in the Township of Townsend, County of Norfolk, Ont., July 21, 1841, He
was brought up mainly in Brant County, where he went when eiuht years of age, and
assisted on a farm and saw-mill for eight years. He then removed to Beamsville,
Lincoln County, Ont, and resided there sixteen years. When he came of age he
entered into partnership with his father in the foundry and agricultural manufacturing
business in Beamsville, Ont.. under the name and style of A. Harris ^ Son, employing
five men at first. Finding their business i-apidly increasing, and necessitating better
facilities, they removed to Brantford in the fall of 1872. Business still steadily in-
creased, and they now do the second largest trade in their line in the Dominion. Mr.
Harris was married in Oct., 1863, to Jane Tufiford, a native of Beamsville, Ont.,
and to this union have been born 9 children, 7 living — Annie, Lbyd, Mabel, Lena,
Mary, Morgan and Grordon. The deceased are Loren and Lillie. Mr. and Mrs. Harris
and the three eldest children are members of the First Baptist Church, and Mr. Harris
is also a Deacon of that church and a member < f the Official Board. He is also a
Manager of the Young Men's Christian Association, and for two years was President
of that institution. He is a Reformer in p' litics, and one of the City Aldermeu.
RICHARD R. HARRIS is a native oi Brant County, and a son of Richard and
Margaret (Butler) Harris. (See sketch of Dr. W. T. Harris). Richard R. assisted on
his fathei's farm, and was educated in the county public schools, Collegiate Institute,
Brantford, and Hamilton Business College. When he arrived at manhood's apre he
engaged as salesman for a wholesale boot and shoe firm at Newcast e. State of Penn-
sylvania, for two years, when he came to Brantford and acted as salesman and traveller
for a period of five years for John Edgar & Son, crockery and glassware merchants,
and in November, 1880, commenced the same business on his own account in the
premises now occupied by him in the T.M.C.A. building. The store is admirably
adapted for Mr. Harris' extensive and fast increasing business, which is both whole-
sale and retail, and enjoying the largest trade in the city or c<mnty. The Colborne
Street front of the store is 24 feet, with a depth of 120 feet, both store-room and cellar.
Mr. Harris is a member of St. Judea' ( Episcopal) Church, a member of Brant (Masonic)
Lodge, No. 45, and First Lieutenant in Company No. 6, Dufierin Rifles.
DR. WILLIAM T. HARRIS, physician and surgeon, Brantford, is the eldest son
of Richard Harris, Esq., of Onondaga Township, a biographical sketch of whom appears
elsewhere in this work. Dr. Harris was born January 17, 1852. He received a pre-
liminary education at the Brantford public schools and the Upper Canada College,
Toronto, and passed the matriculation examination before the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, Ontario, in April, 1870. He graduated at the Universi^y of Trinity
College in 1874, receiving then the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, and in the same
year passed the required examination, and was admitted a member oi the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Ontario. In the following year, 1875, he received the
degree of Doctor of Medicine at Trinity University. During the summer of 1873, he
514 HISTORY OF BRAin? COUNTY.
attended cliDical lectures in Xow York City, and in 1879 was sometime Associate
Gynecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Dr. Harris commenced the prac-
tice of his profession at Langford, Brant County, in May, 1874, and in the autumn of
1875 removed to Brantford. He has always enjoyed a lai^e practice, as he is one of
the most promising physicians in the county, and even in this section of the Province.
Among the public positions v hich he holds at the present time are : Surgeon to the
Dufferin Rifles, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Ancient Order of Foresters,
Canadian Order of Foresters, District Orange Association, Commercial Traveliers'
Association ; Examiner of Pensioners for the Unit^ni States Government ; one of
the Surgeons to the Brant County Gaol, Grand Trunk Railway, and Canada
Life Assurance Company ; President of the Liberal Conservative Association of tlie
South Riding of Brant ; President of the Brant County Medical Association, and mem-
ber of the City of Brantford Public School Board. Dr. Harris is a great reader of
medical works and current literature. He was married, April 12, 1881, to Mary
Maud, only daughter of Dr. Egerton Griffin, of Brantford, and he and his wife are
members of the old Mohawk Church, of which the Venerable Archdeacon Nelles is
pastor. Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Harris are both descendants of United Empire Loyalist
families, the mother of Dr. Harris being the granddaughter of the late Colonel John
Butler, His Majesty's Commissioner for Indian Affairs, also Commander of Butler's
Rangers, and who distinguished himself at the battles of Lake George, 1 755, and the
capitulation of Fort Niagara, 1759. Dr. Harris has always taken a deep interest in
military affairs and rifle shooting, and politically is a staunch and consistent Conser-
vative.
J. J. HAWKINS, member of Parliament for Bothwell, County of Kent, was bom
in the City of Brantford, February 8th, 1840, and is a son of John Hawkins, a native
of County Down, Ireland, who came to this country in 1832. John Hawkins was an
architect and builder, and located in Brantford Village in 1834. He resided here
during the remainder of his life, and died in 1853. He was a prominent citizen of
Brantford, highly respected, and in politics he was what ft now termed a '' Moderate
Reformer." He married Miss Mary, daughter of Ewen McDougall, of Kingston, Ont.,
at one time in the Commissariat Department, and who came to Canada with the late
Bishop McDonald, locating in the Glengarry Settlement. They were the parents of
elevei^ children, six of whom are living — three sons and three daughters — and Mrs.
Hawkins is still living at the age of 69 years. J. J. Hawkins, our subjec% was reared
in Brantford, and has resided here almost continuously. He obtained a hi^h school
education, and was a merchant of Brantford for 15 years. In 1874 he closed out his
mercantile business in order to settle up a large estate, which occupied him until 1878.
He was a member of the Town Council one year, and was then elected Depnty-Reeve,
for which office he was re-elected, and was then made Alderman of Brantford City.
Mr. Hawkins is a Liberal-Conservative, and in 1873 contested this Riding unsuccess-
fully with the Hon. A. S. Hardy, receiving a large majority in the city, but he was
beaten in the county ; this contest was for a seat in Ontario Legislature for South
!Brant. In 1874 Mr. Hawkins was Vice-President of the Liberal-Conservative Associa-
tion of South Brant, and President in 1878. In 1876, 1877 and 1878, he was engaged,
together with Sir John Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper, Hon. Wm. McDougall, and
others, in the campaign that resulted in the *' National Policy." Mr. Hawkins making
numerous speeches in favour of its adoption. In 1878 he was candidate for a seat in
the House of Commons for the Electoral Division of Bothwell, an4 was defeated by
Hon. David Mills, the then Minister of the Interior, by a greatly reduced majority.
He was again a candidate in the general election of June, 1882, was elected and is
now holding that position. Mr. Hawkins has taken a very active interest, and has
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 515
taken part in all the great political contests since Confederation ; having spoken in
nearly every constituency in Ontario. He was one of the chief officers in taking the
Dominion Census for the Niagara and Northern Districts in 1881, and had a staff of
commissioners and enumerators numbering over 400, whose work he supei vised. He
was married in the fall of 1863 to Miss £llen M. Harrington, a native of Boston,
Mass., U.S., by whom he has had eight children, five yet living, viz.: William L.,
Augustus C, Mary C, Lucy T., and Gertrude. He, his wife and family, are all mem-
bers of St. Basil's Horn an Catholic Church. Mr. Hawkins has been presented with
many valuable testimonials in appreciation of his political services by his friends in
the counties of Huron, Kent, Both well and Lambton.
JAMES B. HAY, seedsman and florist, Brantford, was horn near Paris, South
Dumfries Township, June 8, 1839, and is a son of Charles Hay, a native of Scotland
and a farmer by occupation. The latter came to Brant County in 1834, and subse-
quently removed to Waterloo County, Ont., where he died in 1868. Ho resided in
Uie vicinity of Paris for eight or ten years, and married Isabella Ford, a native of
Scotland, by whom he had seven children, six of whom are still living, and two of those
are residents of this county. Mrs. Charles Hay is still living in Gait, Ont. James B.
Hay, our subject, resided in Brant County during the first eight years of his life, and
was afterwards reared in Waterloo County. He followed farming pursuits till he was
about thirty-five years of age, and came to Brantford in 1875, entering into his present
business ot seedsman and florist, which he has conducted with much success. He in the
only one in that business in Brantford, or even in the County of Brant. He was
mairied April 23, 1878, to Clara IStock, of Wentworth County, Ont, by whom he had
two children, Agnes Catharine and Charles. Mr. and Mrs. Hay are both members of
Zion Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Hay ia a Keformer in politics.
CROSLEY HEATON, dealer in boots and shoes. North Colbome Street, Brant-
ford, was bom in Yorkshire, England, February 14th, 1826, and is a son of John
Heaton, also a native of Yorkshire, who married Grace Crosley, of York, England,
by whom he had a family of 10 children, five of whom survive, and are all residents
of Brant County. The father died in 1841 and the mother in 1858. Crosley Heaton,
the subject of this biography, left England when sixteen years of age, and with his
brother Jonas came to Brant County, settling in Mt. Pleasant Village. There he
bought a farm of eix;hty acres, now in the village, on which he resided for thirty years.
He then sold it and went into general business, which he conducted seven years. Soil-
ing this out also, he came to Brantfprd in 1879, and commenced the boot and shoe
trade, in which he has met with good success. In connection with the store he has a
repair shop. Mr. Heaton was formerly an Oddfellow. He is an adherent of the
Methodist Church and a Reformer in politics. From 1862 till 1870 he was Captisiin
of No. 4 Company of Brant Battalion of Rifles. He was married in February, 1851,
to Sarah Parker, a native of Westmoreland, England, and their family numbered 10
children, of whom the following survive ; Grace, wife of Ralph Long, of Brantford ;
John C, junior member of Heaton & Son ; Jonas £., with Frank Cockshutt ; Amelia,
Sarah and Harry. Mrs. Heaton is a member of Wellington Street Methodist
Church.
ROBERT HENRY, ex-Mayor of the City of Brantford, and a leading business
man of the younger class, was bora in Perthshire, Scotland, November 30th, 1844.
His father is John Henry, a carpenter and contractor, and his mother was Jane Dow;
both were Scotch. He was educated in the parish schools of Perthshire until nine
years of age, and then came with his family to Canada West in 1853. He finished
his studies in the Brantford public schools, and when in his twelfth year entered the
new stationery and news store of Andrew Hudson ; was with him three years, and then
616 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
became an apprentice to the groceiy bnsiQesB with R. C. Allen. In 1862, Mr. Heniy
entered the store of Charles Watts, leading wholesale grocer in Brantford, and on the
demise of Mr. Watts in 1868, when his son Alfred boui^ht ont the establishment, Mr.
Henry became manager, and held that position until 1871, when he became a partner
of Mr. Watts. The firm of A. Watts ix, Co. are also proprietors of the Brantford
Soap Works, and in the wholesale mercantile business and manufactory combined, are
doing a business of about $480,000 annually. They stand in the front rank of the
commercial men of the City of Brantford, as well in the character of the house as in
the amount of its transactions. Mr. Henry has been a director of the Bnmtford
Young Ladies' College from its start ; has been President of the St Andrew's Sodetj,
President of the Caledonian Society, and President of the Conservative Association
for South Brant ; was a member of the High School Board of Trustees at one period ;
was a member of the City Council for the North Ward in 1876, and Mayor in 1878
and 1879 ; and President of the South Brant Agricultural Association in 1883. He
is an indefatigable worker for the interests of the city. While he was Chief Magis-
trate, the Lome Bridge, one of the best iron structures of the kind for roadways in
the Province, and other improvements have been made. In public spirit he finds a
strong body of coadjutors in this enterprising young city. Mr. Henry is a Blae
Lodge Mason, a member of the Zion Presbyterian Church, and a generous man in
support of any local institution likely to benetit the public.
JOHN H£XT, manufacturer of buggies, carriages, sleighs, d^., Brantford, was
bom near Plymouth, Devonshire, England, September 20, 1840, and is a son of
Thomas and Elizabeth (Hamlin) Hext, also natives of England, and who came to
Canada with their family in 1851. They were the parents of 10 children, driving
at present. Mr. Hext, Senr., who was a farmer by occupation, and his wife, I'eside at
Woodstock, Oxford County, Ont., the former ih his 70th year and the latter in her
69th year. John Hext, our subject, was brought up in Oxford County, and when 17
years ot age learned the carriage trade, finishing bis early experience in the business at
Ingersoll. He also worked as a joiner for three years. In 1863 he came to Brantford,
and worked for Woods Lyons. Subsequently he and his brother, Thomas, purchased
the stock-in-trade of Fred. Yanderlip in the fall of 1865, and on January 1, 1866, the
firm of T. & J. Hext commenced business, and continued until 1875, when Thomas
died. Mr. Hext has since carried it on alone, and during the past few years has enjoyed
splendid success. He was married December 28, 1865, to Helena Barker, a native
of Canada, and their family numbers two children — a boy and girl, both living. Thej
are members of the First Baptist Church, and he is a Reformer in politics.
BERXHARD HEYD, grocer, was born ia the City of Berne, in Switzerland, June
13, 1813, where he lived until he was 19 years of age, when he emigrated t> America
He settled in the City of Rochester, State of New York, where he worked until he
came to Canada, in 1854, at his trade of carpenter. On arriving in Brantford he took
charge of the shops of the Buffalo, Brantford and GxKierich Railway, and so continued
until the line became the Bufifalo and Lake Huron, when he took charge of the exten-
sive car works of Williams, Butler & Jackson, in Hamilton, who were making cars for
the Great Western R R. He purchased the site on which his present store stands
in 1855, and began business as a grocer, in which he has been moderately suocessfol.
In 1871 he erected his present shop at a cost of $5,000, including his warehouse. He
keeps a large stock of general groceries and provisions, and is a heavy packer of pork,
of which, and fresh meats, he selb a large quantity. In 1881 and 1882 he erected the
Commercial Building on the comer of George and Daihousie Streets, which is con-
sidered as amongst the finest in the city. He married Magdelena Maurer, a native
of Prussia, and of this union 12 children have been bom, of whom 6 are living— 4
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 517
sons and 2 daughters. The oldest, Charles B. Heyd, and youngest, Edward, are in
the store. Louis T., the second son, is a barrister by profession, and is practising in
his native city, Brantford, his office being in the Commercial Block. He is married
to Amelia Weinang, a native of Brantford. Dr. Herman Emil, third living son, is a
physician and surgeon, and a graduate of McGill College, Montreal ; he is an M.R.C.S.
of London, England, and spent two years in the leadin*^ hospitals of England and the
Continent practising his profession. He is now practising in the City of Buffalo, at
No. 9 Niagara Street.
CHARLES B. HEYD, grocer, Brantford, is the eldest living son of Bernhard and
Magdelena Heyd. He was bom in the City of Rochester, State of New York, Feb.
23, 1842, and has been a resident of the City of Brantford about 30 years. On Dec.
4, 1865, he married Janet Davey, a native of ScotlanH. Mr. Heyd is a Liberal-Re-
former in politics, and has been for 5 years an Alderman for Queen's Ward. He is a
director of the Eoyal Loan and Saving Co., and of the Brantford Young Ladies' College.
WESLEY HOWELL, real estate and insurance agent, Brantford, was bom in An-
caster Township, Went worth County, Ontario, Jan. 28, 1825, and is a son of Moses
H. Howell, a native of New Jersey, whose ancestors came from Wales to America in
the year 1659. Moses H. Howell was born in 1798, and was a son of Garrett Howell,
who came to Canada when Moses was two years old. He lived in the Niagara District
for two years, and in 1802 settled in Went worth County. Moses H. Howell was a
blacksmith by trade, but worked at various occupations through life, and died at the
age of 80 years. Garrett Howell was a pioneer local minister of the Methodist denom-
ination, in the Jersey Settlement, Wentworth County, and one of its most able
exponents. He was the father of fourteen children. Moses H. Howell married
Deborah Wilson, a native of Wentworth County, and a daughter of Obed Wilson, a
Quaker by religious profession, and an early settler of the Jersey Settlement, coming
from Sussex County, New Jersey. They were the parents of thirteen children, ten of
whom grew to manhood and womanhood, and eight of these are still living, two in the
County of Brant Their parents are both dead. Wesley Howell, the subject of this
sketch, was brought up in Wentworth County, and is the oldest living of the large
family. In early life he acted as superintendent of his father's manufacturing depart-
ment for a term of eight years, and then entered into mercantile business in Paris,
Ont., where he remained ten years, when he engaged in grist and flour milling in the
Township of Blenheim for nine years further. At the expiry of that time, in 1866,
he came to Brantford, and, along with Wm. Imlach, went into the manufacturing of
vinegar,and subsequently gave the initial impetus to what is now the " British Ameri-
can Starch Works." After spending two or three years in the starch business, Mr.
Howell retired from it, and became engaged in office, real estate, insurance and build-
ing businetfa He is a member of Doric Lodge No. 121 (Masonic), and Mt. Hureb
Chapter No. 21. He, with his wife, attends the services of Brant Avenue Methodist
Church, and is a Reformer in politics. In February, 1848, Mr. Howell married Emma
Yanderlip, of Brantford Township, daughter of Edward Vanderlip, by whom he had a
family of six children, three daughters and three sons. Mr. Yanderlip was a farmer
of Brantford Township, and for many years Eeeve of the same, and a member of the
County Council. His wife still lives at the ripe old age of ninety-two years.
THOMAS JAMES was born in the Town of Market Hearling, in the County of
Norfolk, England, Aug. 3rd, 1818. His father's name was Alexander, a supervisor of
Excise for many years, and his mother's name was Mary Soott, both natives of Norfolk.
Their family numbered fifteen children, nine of whom are now living, viz., three boys
and six gi^ls- The former are all in Canada (two of them in Brantford — Thos., our sub-
ject, and Henry), and the latter are all in England. Their father died in 1870, and their
518 HISTORV OF BRANT COUNTY.
mother in 18G4. Thomas was educated at Holt Grammar School, which he left when
he was sixteen years of age, and took an engagement for one year as copyint, after
which he taught school during another year. On September 28, 1836, he was mar-
ried at the City of Norwich, England, to Hannah £iuma Heail. Fiom Nor rich be
and his young wife went to London, and after remaining there about ten days set sail
for New York ; thence to Oswego, New York State, crossed the lake (Ontario) to
Kingston, Upper Canada, and from thence to Brock ville, Upi^er Canada, by schooner.
Taking sleigh from the latter place for Bytown (now Ottawa), they reached there
after travelling over " corduroy " roads during three days. At Bytown Mr. James
remained over the winter and then returned to Oswego, where he engaged himself
as a public school teacher, and remained such until the fall of .1844. Again he went
to Bytown, and was engnged by the Hon. Thomas McKay to teach school at New Edin-
burgh, and this continued till the fall of 1845. Again making Oswei^o his destina-
tion, he remained there till the fall of 1846, when an invitation trom Brantford reached
him to take charge of the school in the East Ward, the trustees of which were James
McMichael, Wm. Matthews and Calvin Houghton. This school was situated on the
north-west comer of the Public Square. It was a square building of about 24 feet,
all in one room. The second school was located on the north-west corner of the Market
Square, in the Brant Ward. Joseph Potts was then the teacher. The third school
was situated in the Queen's Ward, on a lot now occupied by Mr. Henry Wade, and
was taught by Wellesley Johnstone. Brantford was then a village without a railroad,
a public hall or a court hoifse. On June 27th, 1817, Mr. James lost his wife. The family
by this marriage numbered seven children, three of whom survive and are residents of
Brantford. Mr. James took for his socond wite Mary Ann Brookes, widow of Thomas
Brookes and eldest daughter of Joseph Gardner. They were married on February
13th, 1850, by the Rev. James C. Usher, Hector of Grace Church, and to this union
there were three children, one only surviving — Charles, who lives at home. In 1850
Mr. James entered business as a grocer, and opened a store opposite where the Town
Hall now stands, and continued in it for about four years. During this period he was
apiK)inted Assessor for the town. He erected two brick stores adjoining the one he
occupied, and then sold out the business and rented the stores. He has been Assessor
for over twenty years, and was ap|K)inted Justice of the Peace in J 864, and still retains
the commission. He was for over twelve years a trustee of the Collegiate Institute and
public schools, and twice elected President of the Mechanics' Institute. Mr. and Mrs.
James and family attend Grace (Episcopal) Church. In politics he is a Keformer.
CHARLES JAR VIS, soap and candle manufacturer, &a. Brantford. C. Jarvis
emigrated to Canada in the spring of 1843, and settled in Brantford, after the first
year, which was s|)ent in farming with his uncle, Huntly, and the second year in Mr.
Colman's store, Paris. In the fall of 1815 he came to the then Town of Brantford to
learn the soap and candle business with the late C. Watts, Esq., which he has followed
ever since (with an intermission of about four years), at one time a partner with that
gentleman. In process of time the business went into the hands of A. VVatts it Co.,
C. Jarvis retaining the management, which he has continued up to the present time.
The business has increased each year, until now it has reached very extensive dimen-
sions, and pushed to its utmost capacity to supply the ever increasing demand. It is
about thirty-seven years since Mr. Jarvis turned his attention to this branch of busineas,
with the intermission above stated. Mr. Jarvis is a native of Ticehurst, Stissex, Eng-
land, who until recently carried on an extensive potash business successfully li number
of years in connection with the management of the soap and candle works. He als*
engaged in the manufacture of kid gloves, which was carried on for a time in the Kerbj
Block, comer of Market and Colbome Streeta. Not finding it conyenient to attend to
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 519
its details without loss, he sold out. He also went heavily into the grape-growing
business, established his vineyard at Beams ville in partnership with Mr. John Kilbom,
to whom he sold out to a little advantage. The vineyard yielded many tons of the
finest grapes annually. Mr. Jarvis' engagements have been such that little time could
be devoted to public affairs, though he has been elected several times as School Trustee.
He has paid close attention to his business, the goods being turned out under his
supervision. He is now wholesale iiii)K)rter of French goods for brushes, also manu-
facturer of brooms, brushes and feather dusters.
CHARLES STEPHEN JONES, of the firm of Hardy, Wilkes & Jone?, barristers,
Brantford, was bom in Hamilton, April 5, 1850, and coming to Brantford when three
years of a^^e, was reared and educated here. He is a son of Stephen James Jones,
Esq., County Judge. He commenced the study of law with the Hon. A. S. Har iy,
in 1872, and was admitted, in 1877, as a barrister and solicitor, and then went into
partnership with Hon. A. S. Hardy and Alfred J. Wilkes, under the firm name of
Hardy, Wilkes & Jones. He has been connected with the 38th Battalion, Dufferin
Rifles, for about thirteen years, joining first as 2nd Lieutenant, and has held the offices
of Captain and Adjutant, and in June, 1881, was promoted as Lieutenant-Colonel
commanding, which position he now holds. Col. Jones is also President of the Rifle
Aissociation of the regiment. He is a Reformer in politics, and is a member of the
Brant Avenue Methodist Church, being a member of the official Board of that church.
He was married in 1873 to Miss Harriette Rowlands, of Kingston, Canada They
had three children, two of whom are living — Arthur Charles Reginald and Edna Ste-
phanie. Mrs. Jones died in September, 1882.
HUGH J. J0NE8, dealer in dry goods and millinery, Colbome Street, Brantford,
was bom at Woodstock, County of Oxford, Ontario, March 17, 1840, and is a son of
Wuiter Jones, a native of Monmouthshire, England. He (Walter Jones), came to
Woodhtock, Ont., then in the Brock District, in 1833, and carried on farming in Oxford
County till 1855, at which date he retired from active life, and has been a resident of
Brantford for twelve years. Hugh J. Jones, our subject, received his early training
and education in Woodstock, and wh^n eleven years of age was employed as a clerk
in the general store of James Laycock, with whom he remained one year. Acting in
capacity of clerk till 1859, he in that year came to Brantford, and entered the employ-
ment of H. W. Brethour <fe Co., in whose service he spent twenty years, during the
last seven of which he had an interest in the business. In 1879 he, opened his pre-
sent establishment, and has met with very fair success. He employs about thirty-two
assistants in both departments. Mr. Jones married, March 1, 1881, Miss Calver, a
native of Blackheath, London, England, and they are both members of Grace (Epis-
co|Xftl) Church, of which church Mr. Jones has acted as Warden for two years. In
politics he is a Conservative, but he has not held office, his time being too closely occu-
pied with business.
STEPHEN JAMES JONES, Brantford, Judge of the County Court of Brant and
Master in Chancery, dates his birth at Stony Creek, County of Went worth, Ontario,
December 21st, 1821, his father being Stephen Jones, a son of a United Empire
Loyalist, and born in Duchess County, New York. A great-uncle of our subject,
Augustus Jones, also a Loyalist, was Government Land Surveyor in the old Niagara
District, his residence being at Stony Creek. The mother of our subject was Mary
Smith. Judge Jones was educ-ited in the District Grammar School in Hamilton ; studied
law at first with Miles O'Reilly, Q.C., of Hamilton, and afterwards with S. B. Freeman,
Q.C., of the same city ; was calle<l to the Bar in February, 1846, and practised with
Mr. Freeman until 1853, when he received the appointment of County Judge at the
time the County of Brant was organized as a separate county. The appointment of
520 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Master in Chancery was made in Aagust, 1875. Judge Jones is naturally of a judicial
temperament ; has a legal turn of mind ; is not afraid of work, and is a growing man.
He is considered, on the whole, outside the county as well as in it, one of the ahlest
and most satisfactory County Judges in the Province. During the earlier years that
he was on the bench appeals were not iu frequently made from his decision, but rarely
with success, and of late years few if any appeals have been made. While resideut
in Hamilton, the Judge held the position of Adjutant of the 3rd Gore Militia, under
Lieutenant Gourlay. Judge Jones is a member of the Board of County Judges, which
consists of five members, Messrs. Gowan, of Barrie ; Jones, of Brantford ; Hughes, of
St. Thomas ; Daniel 1, of L'Orignal ; and Sinclair, of Hamilton. He is a member of
the Methodist Church of Canada ; Eepording Steward and Trustee-Treasurer of the
Brant Avenue Church, Brantford, and a man of most solid Christian character. He
has been a total abstainer from all intoxicating liquors from boyhood ; he has visited
other counties in advocacy of the Scott and Dankin Acts as the best laws that could
be had at that time, and is a strong advocate of a general prohibitory law. On the
bench, in private, everywhere, his temperance views ara well known, and his influence
is felt. Judge Jones has always taken an active part in the general work of his church,
especially in aid of its missionary operations and educational institutions. In 1879 he,
with the Rev. Thomas Stobbs, of Mount Pleasant, took the initiatory steps for forming
a plan for raising district scholarships for Victoria College, a scheme which has since
gone into successful operation. The church has appreciated and acknowledged his
past services by electing him in 1874 a delegate to the first General Conference of the
Church held at Toronto ; also in 1878 for the next General Conference held in Mont-
real, of which he was appointed one of the secretaries ; and again, in 1882, he was elected
to the General Conference, and was appointed a member of the Joint Union Committee
and of the Court of Appeal Id 1847 the Judge married Miss Mar^ret Willi-unson,
daughter of the Inte John Williamson, of Stony Creek ; they have six children living,
and have lost one son. John W., the eldest son, is a barrister, of the firm of Jones &
McQueston, of Hamilton ; Charles S. is a barrister, of the firm of Hardy, Wilkes k
Jones, of Brantford ; Jennie is the wife of Geoi^ge Kerr, Jr., barrister, of the firm of
Kerr & Bull, Toronto. The other three, all sons, are single.
JAMES K£R, grain dealer, Brantford, is a native of Duudas, County of Wentworth,
Ont, an^ is the soii of the late Adam Ker, who was bom in Scotland, and came to
Canada at a very early day. He settled at Dundas and carried on merchandise and
warehousing business for twelve years, and then removed to Gait as representative of
James B. Ewart, of Dundas, in the mill business, also of the German Mills, Gralt Mr.
Adam Ker was Mayor of Gait for seven successive yea) s, and resided in that town
twenty years. He came to Brantford in 185S, and with James Coleman, of Dundas,
entered into the grain business, which they carried on for seven years, when Mr. Cole-
man retired, and the subject of this sketch, who had come to Brantford, acted as clerk
for his father for a time, when he became a partner, and the firm of Ker & Son existed
for three years. The senior partner then returned to Gait, where he died Sept 2,
1879, two yeais to a day after the decease of his wife. They are both buried in Ghdt.
James Ker has continued in the grain business with a considerable amount of success.
He at one time bought a farm in the North Ward, Brantford, which he laid ont into
town lots. He erected Ker's Music Hall, now Stratford's Opera House, in 1866, and
has otherwise materially contributed to the growth of the city. * Has also been exten-
sively engaged in buying and selling real estate. Mr. Ker has been a member of the
Oity Council for five or six yeais, during which period he assisted in carrying some
important measures essential to the welfare of Brantford. He has also taken an active
part in the interests of the Brantford Young Ladies' College, and during the first year
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 521
of its existence held the position of Cashier of the Finance Committee. He and his
family are members of Zion Presbyterian Church, and in politics he has always been
a Eeformer. Mr. Ker mairied, May 5, 1863, Jennie Peterson, of Niagara Falls, grand-
daughter of Major McMicken, who was a soldier of the War of 1812, and their family
has nuwbered seven children, five of whom survive, viz., Newton, Isabel, Mabel C,
Edwin D. and Gordon W. Mrs. Ker's brother, P. A. Peterson, erected the Toronto
Water- Works, and is now Chief Engineelr of the Occidental and Ottawa Hail way, under
Government control.
JOHN K£RE, Foreman Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Car Shops, Brantford,
was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, June 17, 183(), and is a son of Robert Kerr, also a
native of Ayrshire and a farmer by occupation. He died within a few miles of his
native place, and his wife died in Scotland in October, 1882. Her maiden name was
Jane Cochran, a native of Paisley, Scotland. Their family numbered seven children,
all lining, and John, the subject of our sketch, is the only one in Canada. When in
Scotland he learned the house-joiner's trade at Beith, serving a three years' apprentice-
ship. When nineteen years of age he came to Canada and entered the Great Western
It.B. Car Shops, remaining with that company for six years. From there he went to
the Grand Trunk R.R., Montreal, under C. J. Brydges' management, and continued
there eight years. At that period (June, 1870) he removed to Brantford, and has been
in charge of the car works there ever since. Mr. Kerr was a member of the Grand
Trunk Brigade, and commanded a company in the Dufferin Rifles for three years, and
retired in 1879 with tbe rank of Captain. He is an elder of Zion Presbyterian Church,
and, as well as his wife and daughter, a member of the same body. In politics he is a
Conservative. In December, 1862, Mr. Kerr married Marian McCallan, a native of
Glasgow, Scotland, who came to Canada when three years of age. Their family con-
sisted of four children, of whom three survive, viz., Maggie, Robert and William.
REV. PETER LENNON, Pastor of St. Basil's Catholic Church, Brantford, was
born in the County Armagh, Ireland, June 15th, 1846, and is a son of John Lennon
and Bridget Rock, who came to Canada in 1848, locating in New York City in the
same year. A short time afterwards, in 1856, they came again to Canada. They first
located at Brooklyn, near Whitby, and a year later at Stratford, going from there to
Minnesota in 1865, and there died. They were the parents of six children, five of
whom are living. Our subject was the youngest child, and was reared mostly in
Canada. He studied for the ministry at the College and Seminary of St. Sulpice, in
Montreal, and was ordained at St. Peter's Cathedral, London, Ont., in 1873. He
was subsequently at Amherstburgh, Stratford, came as secretary for Bishop Crinnon
to the Diocese of Hamilton, where he officiated in the City of Hamilton, Dundas,
Caledonia, Walkerton, Arthur, and finally came to Brantford in May, 1882, where he
undertook the task of finishing St. Basil's Church, which was completed May 20th,
1883, and is one of the finest in the Province.
HENRY BLAKEY LEEMING, Collector of Customs at Brantford, was bom
October 5th, 1830, in the Town of Colne, Lancashire, England, and is the youngest son
of Robert Leeming, also bom at Colne, Lancashire, on the 14th March, 1782, and
who emigrated to Canada in the year 1840, and settled in the then Village of Brant-
ford. Robert liceming commenced business as a cabinet-maker, to which he had served
an apprenticeship, and followed for a number of years, in his native place. Afterwards
he was a wholesale wine and spirit merchant, which he gave up on conscientious
grounds, and engaged in the business of cotton manufacture in the days of hand-loom
weaving. These giving place to power looms was given up, and he commenced busi-
neas as a tea and coffee dealer, which he continued up to the time of bis coming to
Canada in 1840. After reidding in Brantford for two years, he purchased a farm on
31
522 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
" Tutela Heights/' a part of the *' Stewai-t and Rugbies tract/' 2^ miles from Brant-
ford. Upon this he resided until his death, 14th January, 1860, at the age of 78.
Robert Leeming was twice married, first to Margaret Parkinson, by *which marriage
he had five children, viz., Ann, William, Margaret, Joseph and Robert. Of these
William immigrated to Canada about 1830, living chiefly in Brantfoid and Paris,
until his death in 1881. Joseph with his family came to Canada in 1840, and lived
in the Town of Kempt ville, County of Grenvtile, and in Montreal, until his death in
the year 1859. The mother of the above children died January 16th, 1812. Robert
Leeming married the second time Margaret Blakey, March 16th, 1813, daughter of
Anthony Blakey, Esq., of Hellefield, County of Craven, Yorkshire. • By the second
marriage he had eight children, three sons and five daughters. John Leeming, the
eldest of the second family, came with his family to Canada in 1840, residing in
Montreal until his death in 1874. The only survivors of the two families are IsabeUa,
wife of James Thomson, formerly of Brantford, now residing in the Village of Cordova,
Rock Island County, Illinois, and Henry Blakey, the subject of the present bio-
graphy. Mr. Leeming was 10 years of a<^e when his father and family settled in
Brantford in 1840. Up to that time he had attended the Colne Grammar School
During the two years' residence in Brantford he attended the only school then in the
village, kept by Mr. Stephen Read, father of the present well-known auctioneer of that
name. Upon removal to the farm he, with his father and brother, were engaged in
clearing and cultivating the same. The father and brother having died, he remained
upon the farm until 1863. In April of that year he (with his family) removed to
Brantford, and entered into partnership with Mi. William Paterson, the present M.P.
for the South Riding, and with him commenced business as wholesale confectioners,
biscuit and cigar manufacturers. The partneiship continued for 13 years, up to 1876,
when he was appointed to his present position as Collector of Customs in May of that
year. In 1864 he was ap|K)inted J.P. for the county, and in 1867 was a member of
the Tourn and County Councils as Deputy Reeve of the town. During that year,
upon the confederation of the Provinces, he contested the South Riding of Brant in
the Reform interest for a seat in the Dominion Parliament against Mr. K B. Wood,
the late Chief-Justice of Manitoba, but was unsuccessful. For several years Mr.
Leeming was President of the Reform Association of the South Riding. Since his
r^idence in Brantford he has for some years been connected with the South Brant
Agricultural Society as one of its directors, and its President in 1874. Mr. Leeming
for many years has been a member of the Board of High School Trustees, and is at
present Chairman of the Collegiate Institute Board. He is also a Director and Secre-
tary of the Brantford *Youns: Ladies' College. Brantford in former years having suffei'ed
disastrously from fire, in 1872 the Brantford Water- Works Company was formed for
the introduction of the Holly system of fire protection. Mr. Leeming, with a number
o£ other business men, was one of its early promoters, has been a director of the
company since its formation, and for a number of years its secretary. Mr. Leeming
is a member of the Farringdon Independent Church, a body of Christians of that name
meeting at Farringdon, two miles fro^ Brantford. He is at the present time President
of the Brantford Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Leeming married, in 1855,
Janette, youngest daughter of Mr. William Wliitaker. She was bom in the Village
of Kelbrook, Yorkshire, England, and with her father and family emigrated to
Canada in 1843, and settled in the neighbourhood of Brantford. By this marriage has
been born to them 6 sons and 2 daughters, all living but one daughter, who died in
infancy. Their names in the order of their birth are : Robert William, James, John
Francis Henry, Charles Whitaker, Mary Ellen, Maud Mary and Henry Blakey. Mis.
Leeming is a member of the same church with her husband.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 523
WILLIAM J. McHAFFI£, dealer in books, news and stationery, Brantford, was
bom in that city October 17th, 1S59, and is a son of the late John McHaffie, a native
of Gatehouse, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, who came to Canada in 1852, and first
settled in Brantford, but was in the grocery business in Stratford 'and Paris. He was
a resident of Brantford until 1868, when he removed to Hamilton and acted as book-
keeper in the Times office for two years. He then opened a tobacco store, which he
operated till the day of his death, June 17th, 1871. He is buried in Bitmtford Ceme-
tery. The late Mr. McHaffie was one of the original members of the Highland Company,
now embodied in the Dulferin Eifles, Brantford. He was married to Charlotte A.
Wells, an English lady, and they were the parents of four children^ all living, viz.:
David S., a conductor on the Grand Trunk Eailway, and a resident of Stratford ;
William J.; Charles A., a druggist's clerk in Cornwall; and Frank M., an operator in
the employment of the Western Union Telegraph Company, Fort Howard, Wisconsin.
Their mother is still living, and William J., our subject, resides with her. William
J. was brought up in Brantford, and educated at Brantfoid, Hamilton and Clinton
High Schools. When thirteen years of age he commenced in the bodk-store business
with his uncle, WilUiam McHaffie, in Clinton, Huron County, Ontario, remaining with
him three yean ; then returning to Brantford, he became clerk for two years in W. P.
Scott's grocery house. His uncle having removed from ( Minton to Brantford, William
again sestired a position with him, and in May, 1880, purchased his stock and trade.
The store is situated on the comer of George and Dalhousie Streets, in the Kerby House
Block, and Mr. McHaffie is the youngest store-keeper in Brantford. He has met with
excellent success, and has lately enlarged his store to meet increasing business.
THOMAS McLEAN, merchant, dry goods, clothing and millinery, was bom in
Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, May 11th, 1831, and is a son of John McLean, also
a native of Scotland, and a resident there during life. He was a parish schoolmaster,
and followed that profession for fifty years, and died in August, 1876, aged eighty-
three years. Mr. Thomas McLean left Scotland when twenty-two years of age, came to
Canada, and located at Niagara, moving to Brantford in 1854, and has remained in
business until now, a period of twenty-eight years. He has met' with fair success,
having commenced with a small business, and now enjoys one of the largest trades in
this line in the city. He was married September 9th, 1856, to Sarah Hawley, a
native of Brant County, and a daughter of Alvan Hawley, who held a magistrate's
commission, and as a lieutenant in the Militia saw active service during the Kebel-
lion of 1837. Mr. McLean was for five years a member of the City Council, and for
two years President of the St. Andrew's Benevolent Society ; is a Director and the
Treasurer of the Brantford Young Ladies' College ; and is a member of the Public
School Board, being elected by acclamation. He is a Reformer in politics, and was
once offered nomination for Parliament by the Eeform party, but decline I it He
was twice candidate for Mayor, and once^ defeated by only two votes. He and hia
wife are membei*s of the Presbyterian Church, of which he has for eighteen years been
an elder, and for thirteen years Session Clerk. He had one son, who is deceased.
JOHN MANN, of John Mann & Sons, dealer in coal, lumber, wood and water-lime,
Brantford, was born in Yorkshire, England, September 29, 1837, and is a son of
Thomas and Hannah (English) Mann, the latter of whom died when the subject of
this sketch was quite young. Mr. >lann, Sr., is still living. There were three children
to this union, of whom John is the second, and he found in early life the full experience
of daily toil. For two years before coming to Canada, which was in 1866, he taught
school. On arriving in the land of his adoption he located at first in London^ Ont., for
eight months, when he came to Canada and leased the gas-works for a term ot ten
years. ^During part of that period he was also engaged in his present business, which
524 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
has been in operation now eleven years. The finn of John Mann & Sons is one of the
largest wholesale dealers in coal, lumber and wood in Ontario, their trade extending
even to Manitoba. Early in 1882 they entered into partnership with David Plewes it
Son, of Brantford, in the lumber, wood and coal business at Winnipeg, the firm being
known as Plewes, Mann & Co. Mr. Mann, along with his wife and five oldest children,
is a member of the Wellington Street Methodist Church. He has also been Sunday
Schoi.>l Superintendent for about ten yeais, and class-leader and trustee about fourteen
years, which office he still regains. In politics or municipal matters he is not biased
by partizanship, but supports the best man irres}>ective of party, giving preference to
the candidate he thinks most likely to be helpful in introducing and carrying any
measure calculated to help forward the temperance cause, and haa been a member of
the City Council one year, and four yeai*s of the Board of School Trustees. Mr. Mann
was married April 14, 1860, to Harriet Elliott, sister of John Elliott, of Brantford,
whose biography will be found elsewhere, and this union has been blessed with twelve
children, eleven of whom are now living.
REV. W. J. MAXWELL, Pastor of the WeUington Street Methodist ChuTch of
Canada, Brantford, was bom at Plympton, Lambton County, Ontario, March 25, 1 844,
and is a son of W. J. Maxwell, Esq., a native of Ireland, and a farmer by occupation,
who came to Canada in 1828, locating in Lambton County, where he resided until his
death in 1880, aged 71 years. He was married to Miss Hannon, also a native of Ire
land, who died in April, 1862. They had six children, five sons and one daughter,
three sons yet living. Mr. Maxwell, our subject, spent the first twenty-four yeais ot
his life in Lambton County, where he taught school for ten years. After studying for
the ministry, he was first put in charge at Watford, Lambton County, for two years ;
then at Parkhill, Middlesex County, for two years ; and was then ordained in Wel-
lington Street Church, Brantford — the church of which he is now the pastor — in
1875, becoming a member of the London Conference. He was pastor of a church in
Gudph for one year after ordination ; then was sent to St. Catharines for three years,
and from there back to Guelph, his former charge, for three years. In June, 1882, he
was placed in his' present charge. He was married August 13, 1879, to Miss Jennie
H. Young, a native of Samia, Lambton County. One brother, Henry W. Maxwell,
was a member of the Methodist Conference, and at the time of his death was in
charge of a church at Durham, Province of Quebec
J. S. MILLS, druggist, Brantford, was bom in the County of Simcoe, Ontario,
April 3, 1850, and is a son of John and Ann (^tinson) Mills, both natives of Ireland,
the former of whom, who was a farmer by occupation, died in 1876 ; the latter is still
living. They had a family of ten children, nine of whom survive, five residing in this
county. J. S. Mills, whose biography we write, worked on a fai-m till he was twenty
years of age, and then attended the Collegiate Institute, Cobourg, Ontario, for two
years, and, for the six months following, the Collegiate Institute, Brantford, which
prepared him for the Victoria College, Cobourg, where he studied for four years and
graduated in divinity, also taking three years in arts. Mr. Mills learned the drug busi-
ness one year with C. S. Mason, Brantford, and four months at Toronto, and obtained
his diploma from the Ontario College of Pharmacy. On this he returned to Brantford,
and, along with L. E. Blackader, bought out Frederick Brandon, and his partnership
with Mr. Blackader lasted for two years and eight months. At this stage, Mr. Mills
bought out the drug business of A. B. Bennett, the oldest in Brantford, and has since
met with most encouraging success. He wis married January 18, 1882, to Adele
C. Hofiman, a native of Berlin, County of Waterloo, Ontario, ^nd a daughter of J. S.
Hofiman, druggist, Berlin. One son has been born to this union — Reginald Wilmer.
Mr. and Mrs. Mills are members of Brant Avenue Methodist Church, and he is class-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 525
leader and Bible class teacher in the same church. He is also a member of the Quar-
terly Board, and in politics a Refoimer.
IJ. W. ^INOR, jeweller and dealer in watches, clocks, etc., south side of Colborne
Street, Brantford, was bom about five miles from Port Colborne, County of Welland,
Ontario, July 13th, 1835. His parents, Jonas and Catharine ( Neff ) Minor, also
natives of Canada, are both deceased. U. W. Minor was brought up and educated
at Port Colborne, and when seventeen years of age, went to St. Catharines to learn
the jeweller's trade, and remained there three years. For three more years he became
a resident of Dunnville, Ont., and from there moved to the United States, and worked
at his ti-ade in ** Uncle Sam's Territory " till 1873. For some time after that date Mr.
Minor followed bis trade in Toronto and Montreal, Canada, and in the fall of 1877
finaJly settled in Brantford, where he has met with satisfactory success. Mr.* Minor
was married Nov. 14th, 1877, to E. Maud Barber, of Toronto, by whom he has two
children — Oriole Ogden and Uriah Edgarton. Both he and Mrs. Minor are members
of Grace (Episcopal) Church. He is in politics, to use his own expression, a *' Grit to
the backbone."
JOHN MONTGOMERY, the oldest merchant at present doing business in Brant-
ford, was bom near 'ArmHgh, Ireland, in September, 1817, and is a son of John M,
and Ann Williamson. They came to Canada in 1844, settling in Hamilton, Ontario,
where the father died in 1849. The mother subsequently removed to Gait, where she
died. They had a family of 12 children, three of whom are now living, all in Brant-
ford— John, the subject of our sketch, and two sisters. These three came to Canada
in 1842. John Montgomery, who had learned the tailoring trade in Ireland, worked
at his trade in Hamilton, Ontario, till the fall of 1850, when he moved to Brantford
and commenced business, which he gradually worked into its present proportions. Mr.
Montgomery has bought and built the present property, and has been moderately suc-
cessful in his line of trade. He is a member of Zion Presbyterian Church, and an
elder in the official board of that body. He was a member of the Grammar School
Board for fourteen successive years, and is at present a member of the Collegiate
Institute Board, and was a member of the City Council six years. In politics he is
a Conservative. Mr. Montgomery was married Nov. 21st, 1848, to' Jane C. Dickson,
a native of Scotland, by whom he had a family of 10 children, six living, viz. : Noble,
wife of Forbeson McHardy, Toronto ; Henry C. at home ; James A. and Robert B.,
in New York City ; John T., at school in Toronto ; and Jane E., at school, at home.
ANDREW MORTON, manager of the British American Starch Company, Brant-
ford, was born in Montreal, March 31st, 1832, and is a son of Robert Morton, of
Perth, Scotland, and a builder and contractor by trade. He came to Canada about the
year 1820 and settled in Montreal, where he resided till 1856, in which year he came
to Brantford, and resided there till his death in 1873. He married Helen Young, also
a native of Perth, by whom he had a family of ten children, seven of whom are now
living. Their mother departed this life in 1 875. Andrew, the subject of this biography,
was brought up in Montreal, where he obtained a good commercial education. He
learned the hardware business when fifteen years of age, serving a five years' appren-
ticeship. He then moved to Brockville with his brother, and acted as clerk for Morton,
McKie <^ Co. fur two years. In 1858 he came to Brantford, where he has since resided.
There he engaged in the hardware business, which he carried on for nearly a quarter
of a century. During this time he became interested in the manufacture of starch
with Wm. J. Imlach. (A full description and detail of this business will be found
under the heading of '* Industries," in this work). Mr. Morton attends the Park
Baptist Church ; has been a member of the Town Council for about nine years, and is a
Reformer in politics. He was married May 30th, 1853, to Elizabeth Muir, a native
626 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of Montreal, by whom be has bad a family of seven cbildren, four snTviving — Herbert
M., in the cattle and farming buaineas in Manitoba ; Jennie, Helen and EtfaeL Mrs.
Morton died in January, 1876. •
HARTNOLL A. N AREA WAY, retired millwright, Brantford, was bom Feb.
23rd, 1827, in Devonshire, England, and is a eon of James Narraway, a native of
the same shire, and a millwright by occupation. He came to Canada in 1843,
settling in the '' Johnson Settlement," in Brantford Township, where J. N. and hu
son W. A. N. together bought 150 acres of land, which is still owned by members of the
family. He (J. N.) married Mary Rowe, a native of Devonshire, England, and
they were the parents of eleven children, five sons and six daughters. Seven of these
are now living. He died in 1851 ; the mother died April 14th, 1883, in her 90th
year. HartnoU A., of whom we write, accompanied his parents to Nova Scotia
when quite young, and lived in Guysborough and Picton for a few years ; after-
wards resided one year in the United States ; and then came to Brant County, when
about sixteen years of aga There he learned the millwright trade, which be fol-
lowed until 1869, then abandoned it on account of ill health. Mr. Narraway *8
mother and family came to this city in 1856, having rented the farm. He resided in
California two years engaged in fruit culture. He is a member of the Wellington
Street Methodist Church of Canada, and in politics is a Liberal His brother, W. A.
Narraway, was engaged in the millwright business up to a few years before bis death,
wbibh occurred in May, 1881.
ABRAHAM N£LL£S, Archdeacon of Brant, Brantford, was bom at Grimsby,
Lincoln County, Ont, Dec. 25th, 1805, and is a Fon of Robert Nelles, a native of the
United States and of Grerroan descent, who was a U.E. Loyalist and a pioneer of
Grand River, Ontario. He was a farmer and miller by occupation, but was mostly
engaged in the latter trade. He was attached to the Six Nation Indians in the
Stat^ as a volunteer dunng the Revolutionary War. He was a member of Parliament
for two or three sessions, and was staled Colonel Robert Nelles, having been a Colonel
of Militia. He married Elizabeth Moore, also a native of the United States. She
died in 1813. He was again married to Widow Bingle, who is also deceased. He
was the father of nineteen children, and died at Grimsby in 1842. The subject of
our sketch was educated in Toronto under Archdeacon (subsequently Bishop) Strachan,
studying for the ministry, and when twenty-three years of age he was put in charge
of the Six Nation Indians, becoming a resident of this county in 1829. He has since
resided here, and has li\ed in Tuscarora and Brantfoid for upwards of fifty years. He
has made very good progress with the Indians, and at present has charge of the Mohawk
Church, holding services there every Sunday. This is the oldest Episcopal church in
Ontario. He was made Archdeacon of the Diocese of Huron. He was married May
3rd, 1831, to Hannah Macklem, a native of Canada. She and two children who were
born to them are deceased. On Sept 17th, 1866, he was married again to Sarah
Macklem, and they have had two children, both living, Juanita and Huron.
WILLIAM NICHOL, physician, Brantford, was bom in Westminster, near London,
Ont., on May 18th, 1837, and is the youngest son of the late Francis Nichol, who
emigrated from Roxburghishire, Scotland, in 1833, and located in Westminster, County
of Middlesex, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits till his death, whidi
occurred about 1870. With the energj', caution and pluck so generally cbaracterisdc
of Scotchmen, he managed to accumulate considerable property, in which he was ably
assisted by his devoted and thrifty belpmate. Before passing away they had the
satisfaction of seeing their five sons comfortably settled in life, and following in their
footsteps. The doctor is the only member of the family not now engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits, and the only one who has left his native township. Doctor Nichol
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 527
resided ¥rith parents till eighteen years of age, when be went to the Normal School,
Toronto, to ^t himself for teaching, and was successful in obtaining a first-class A cer-
tificate, the highest granted by that institution. The doctor followed the profession
of teaching for about ten years, eight of them being spent in the adjoining Village of
Burford. He afterwards chose the profession of medicine, attended lectures at Cleve-
land and Chicago, graduating in homoeopathy in the latter city in 1869; in the same
year passing a successful examination before the Canadian Homoeopathic Board, and
located in Brantford in 1870. In 1882 3, he was a member of the Board of Examiners
appointed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Ontario. While actively engaged
in carrying on a successful practice. Dr. Nichol has been for years an enthusiastic worker
in connection with the Y.M.C.A.,of which institution he has twice been elected Pre-
sident He is a member of Zion Presbyterian Churcn, ol which the Rev, Wm. Cochrane,
A.M., D.D., is pastor, and has held the position of Sabbath Sjhool Superintendent for
eight years. With the exception of the first year of its existence, he has been a member
of the Board of Directors of the Brantford Young Ladies' College, being more particu-
larly interested in tho educational work. In politics the Doctor is a Reformer. He
was married Sept 22nd, 1864, to Miss Agnes M. Charles, of Burford, Ont, who tends
well to the ways of her household. Seeking not the wider field in which some women
with masculine natures endeavour to win applause, the throne uf empire she seeks is
in the heart of her cuildren, and there she delights to reign.
JOHN NOBLE, deceased, was bom in Enniskillen, Ireland, May 12, 1823. He
•ame to Canada, when nine years of age, with his parents. His father was bom on
the ocean, and on his voyage to Canada to seek a new home, he died on the ocean
before landing at Qi^ebec. John Noble was reared and learned the painters' trade at
Little York, now Toronto. He was the oldest of five children. His mother died in
London, Ont, April 14, 1865. He remained in Toronto until about the year 1848,
when he came to Brantford, and carried on business for about a third of a century.
He was one of the first painters of the city and county, and died June 28th, 1881,
aged 58 years. . He married Ann Rispin, a native of England, by whom he had two
sons and three daughters, all living. Their mother is also living, and resides in Brant-
ford. He was initiated into Gore Lodge, No. 34, 1.0.0. F., on Oct. 19, 1865, and took
an active interest in that lodge, until June, 1873, when he withdrew to assist in
organizing Harmony Lodge, No. 115. He was also connected with' Brant Encamp-
ment No. 3, and, previous to his death, was elected its Senior Warden. He was Past
Grand of Gore Lodge, and Chief Patriarch uf Brant; Encampment, and at the 15th
annual session of the Grand Lodge of Ontario, held at the City of Hamilton in Aug.
1869, he held the position of Grand Guardian. The memorial in the Grand Lodge's
report says of him. *^ A just man, and one that feared God, and of good report." He
was a member of Brant Avenue Methodist Church, one of its original trustees, and a
very active worker. In politics he was neutral, and for twenty years was Returning
Officer for Municipal Elections. For the sixteen years previous to his death he never
polled a vote, and never held any public position. His son, T. A Noble, was bom
in Toronto, Nov. 20th, 1845, and came to Brantford when three years of age, where
he received his education. He learned the painter's trade in London, Ont, in 1862,
and remained there four years. Returning then to Brantford, he worked with his
father up to the latter's death. Mr. T. A. Noble has been engaged in si.;n painting,
decorative art, &c., for twenty-one years, and in the spring of 1871 went into the
wall-paper business. In June, 1882, he bought the present property on Market St.,
and fitted it up in a handsome manner.
J. C. PALMER, proprietor of the Kerby House, Brantford, was born at Waterloo,
State of New York, March 2, 1835. His father, Gurdon Palmer, died about thirty
628 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
years ago, and his mother, Fannie (Rothwell) Palmer, is now living with him at the
advanced age of eighty years. Mr. Palmer, the subject of this biography, was reared
in his native place, and in early life invented the Union Sewing Machine, the manu-
facture of which he carried on in company with his brother-in-law. In 1862 he came
to Canada, settlinj^ first at Belleville, where he continued the manufacture of the sewing
machine for some time, and for a short period kept the Anglo-American Hotel in that
town. Finally, in 1864, he moved to Brantford, where he has since been engaged in
whe hotel business. In 1869 Mr. Palmer purchased the Commercial Hotel, and in
1872 sold that out and bought the Kerby House. This well known and popular hotel
Mr. Palmer has recently enlarged and refurnished, until it now contains 130 well
equipijed raoms, with the reputation of being one of the neatest and most complete
hotels in the Province. Mr. Palmer, who thoroughly understands hotel busine»t, is
much esteemed and respected by his numerous patrons and the citizens of Branj;ford
and surrounding country. His urbanity and good nature as a host are too well known
to the travelling public and others to call for any comment in this sketch. Mr. Palmer
was married at Belleville in December, 1866, to Lucilla Vanhom, who departed this
life in 1869, leaving two sons — Calhoun and Charles, both now attending Brantford
public schools.
E. P. PARK, of Park & Co., photographers, Colbome Street, Brantford, was bom
in that city, June 2, 1858, and is a sou of Seth Park, a native of Chippewa, Welland
County, Ont., and a photographer by trade. He came to Brantford in 1853, and became
one of the pioneers of this line of business. £dward P., our subject, obtained his
education at. the Brantford schools, but improved himself in the photographic art in
Chicago, and in 1877 established himself in Brantford under the style and name of
Park & Co. (his mother being a member of the firm), and has met with very encourag-
ing success. He now enjoys the largest trade in the city and country, employing from
eight to ten assistants, and all the business is immediately under his personal super-
vision. Mr. Park himself. has charge of the gallery and does the operatin<;. He is a
member of Brant Masonic Lodge, No. 45, and the Royal Arcanum, Y.M.C.A., and of
Farringdon Debating Society.
WILLIAM PATERSON, Brantford, who represents South Brant in the House
of Commons, is a son of Jam«s and Martha (liawson) Paterson, of Aberdeen, Scotland,
and grandson df the Rev. Mr. Paterson, minister for years at Midmar, Scotland.
His parents came to Upper Canada nearly fifty vears ago, and he was bom in Ham-
ilton, Sept. 19th, 1839. He was educated in that city and at Caledonia, in the
County of Haldimand. He came to Brantford in 1854, and was a clerk in a general
store until 1863, when he commenced the bakery and confectionery business, being for
several years in company with Henry B. Leemihg ; since 1876 he has been alone. His
bakery and confectionery are operated by steam, with all the latest and best methods
of manufacture introduce into his works, and he is doing a business in the depart>
ments of industry mentioned, of about $250,000 a year. He has a genuine pushing
disposition, and probably no manufacturer in the city does a more pros]ierous business.
He is a straightforward, high-minded man, and has an honourable standing in the com-
munity. Mr. Patterson was elected a member of the Town Council of Brantford in
1868, was subsequently Deputy Reeve for three years, 1869 to 1871, and Mayor in
1872. In the last named year, at the general election, he was elected to parliament,
defeating Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, the then Finance Minister, and was re-elected in
January, 1874, in September, 1873, and again in June, 1882. He is a Liberal or
Reformer, and so far as we can learn is popular with his party, and faithfully repre-
sents his constituency in the House of Commons. Mr. Paterson is a member of the
Independent Church, and maintains a high character for rectitude and purity of life.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 529
He was a member of the Execntive Committee of the Ontario Sabbath School Associa-
tion for three years. His wife was Miss Lucy Olive Da vies, daughter of Timothy 0.
Davies, of Brantford ; they were married in Sept., 1863, aud have three children liv-
ing, and have buried two.
J. W. PATTISON, furniture dealer and undertaker, Brantford, was born in the
Township of Crowland, County of Welland, Ontario, April 15, 1840, and is a son of
Ambrose Pattison. a native of Pennsylvania, of German descent. He came to Canada
when about eighteen years of age, and settled in the County of Welland, following
the occupation of farming till his death, which occurred June 26, 1878. He married
Maria Buchner, a Canadian by birth, by whom he had nine children, seven of whom
are living. Their mother died about fourteen years ago. Our subject, J. W. Pa:tison,
was brought up in the County of Welland, and learned the cabinet-making trade when
fifteen years of age, and was with John Miriam for seven years. He then went to
Niagara Falls, at that time named Manchester, and from there to Conneaut, State
of Ohio, and in ten months later, in 1865, come to Brantford, where he has worked as
a cabinet-maker for Adam Burgy, who, in making stain, set fire to his own building,
which, together with several others, was burnt to the ground. Mr. Burgy was so
severely burnt himself that he survived but eleven days. This was one of the most
destructive fires that ever visited Brantford. Mr. Pattison lost all his tools, but, with
commendable enterprise, in three months afterwards commenced business on his own
account In 1875, he erected the front part of his present store, and, in 1880, the
back part. He carries a large stock of undertakers' supplies, as well as furniture of all
kinds. Having commenced on nothing, he has now, by his industry, accumulated a
nice little property. Mr. Pattison is a member of Gore Lodge, No. 34, J.O.O.F., the
A.O.U.W., and the Eoyal Templars of Temperance, and in politics is a Reformer,
On June 12, 1866, he married Sarah T. Everett, a Canadian by birth, by whom he has
two children — Olive M. and Edward B. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pattison attend the reli-
gious services of Wellington Street Methodist Church.
DAVID LESLIE PHILIP, physician and surgeon, Brantford, was bom at Rich-
mond, near Ottawa, Ontario, January 2, 1839, and is a son of Anthony Phi'ip, a native
of Scotland, who was educated at the University of Aberdeen. Draduating there, he
came to Canada, locating at Richmond, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He
resided in Richmond about twenty years, and died at Vankleek Hill, Ontario, in 1861.
He was mairied to Isabella Mowat Buchanan, youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr.
Buchanan. They were the parents of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters,
of whom two sons and five daughters are living. Dr. Buchanan was a descendant
of an old Scottish family, several members of which took a leading part in Scottish
ecclesiastical history. Our subject. Dr. Philip, was educated at the High School of
Yankleok Hill, in the Valley of the Ottawa, and attended McGill Medical College,
Montreal, graduating as M.D. in 1861. His college course was a distinguished one, he
having obtained the Holmes prize for Thesis, the highest prize then conferred by the
University, and also the first prize ia the class of clinical medicine. After leaving
college he went to Woodstock, Oxford County, and entered into partnership with Dr.
Turquand, a dibtinguished physician, who for two years was President of the Ontario
Medical Council. This partnership was continued for three years ; then Dr. Philip
went to Plattesville, in the same county, and was there seven years, enjoying a very
large practice. When he left this place the medical profession of Oxford County
tendered him a public dinner in the Town Hall, and presented him with an address and
a magnificent case of surgical instruments. He came to Brantford in 1872, and has
since been eng»iged in piuctice here. He has been very successful, and does a large
and lucrative practice, having made many warm friends. Dr. Philip is well known
530 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
to the profession in Canada, having contributed many leading articlt^ to the coirent
medical literature. He is a member of Brant County Medical Association, and for
one year ofiiciated as President ; he is also a member of St. Andrew's Society, being
President once, and Brant Lodge, No. 45, ^Tasonic fraternity. He is connectepd with
Zion Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Cochrane, Pastor, and is one of the Board of
Management, and has been one of the Trustees of the Brantford CoUe^^ate Institute
for the past six yearn.
D. B. PHILLIPS, proprietor of the Kerby House Drug Store and Notion Emporium,
Brantford, was bom in County Down, Ireland, March 26, 1845, and isasonof'W'illiam
and Mary Jane (Rennie) Phillips, also natives of Ireland, and descendants of the old
Presbyterian dissenters of Scotland, jliey came to Canada in 1847, and settled in the
County of Leeds, Ont. In the mother country William Phillips was a wholesale linen
merchant, but on coming to Canada entered farming pursuits. He died in 1854, but
his wife sti<l lives on the old homestead. They had four sons, all living, the subject of
this biography being the only one in Brant County, and he was but two years old
when he reached this side of the Atlantic. Remaining in ]..eeds County till he was
seventeen years of age, he taught school for five years, and then learned the drug busi-
ness in Hamilton, Ont. A year later be went into business at Caledonia, Haldimand
County, and in another year moved to Selkirk, same county. Six months later on he
went to Cayuga, and in another six months to Simcoe, County of Norfolk, where he
managed a wholesale waggon for Dr. Wilson for one year. In December, 1872, he
came to Brantford, and ti-avelled for two years in the interests of Hyslop 6l Russell, in
stationery supplies. After travelling three years on his own account in the same line,
he opened his present store, and supplemented drugs to his former lines of merchandise,
and has met with very fair success. His trade is wholesale as w*ell as retaiL He has
two waggons on tha road, travelling over twelve to fifteen counties, selling stationery
and notions. Mr. Phillips has been the architect of his own business, »nd during his
six years travelling with the wholesale waggon has covered as many as 30,000 miles,
thus having travelled with team 5,000 miles more than the circumference of the globe.
Mr. Phillips is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and a Reformer in politics. He w<tt
married September 17, 1872, to Priscilla Fry, a native of Haldimand County, by whom
he had two children, one surviving, Mary Winifred ; Wesley T. is deceased. Mrs.
Phillips is a member of the Wellington Street Methodist Church.
SAM (JEL G. READ, the leading auctioneer in Brantford, was bom in that city.
May 12th, 1843, and is a son of the late Samuel Read, a native of Brockville, Ont.,
and in early life a Baptist minister, prominent as such in Brantford, but owing to an
affection of the throat was compelled to retire from the ministry. He was married
to Jane B. Scott, an English lady, brought up in New Brunswick, by whom he had a
femily of 7 children, four of whom survive, all living in this country, two in Brant
County. Their mother is also living, and resides in Brantford. Samuel G. Read, our
subject, was brought up in Brantford, receiving a good common school training, and
in early life engaged in the dry goods business for six years. On Nov. 23rd, 1870, he
commenced his present occupation, which he Has carried on with remarkable snooess,
having extended it into the selling of real estate, dealing in pianos, organs and sewing
machines, besides a general commission business. Commencing life comparatively
poor, he has given evidence of what may be achieved by perseverance, industry and a
faithful attention to business. Mr Read married, Sept. 5th, 1865, Sarah A« Vendle-
bury, a native of New York City, and to them have been bom 4 children, three of
whom survive — Arthur, Frank and Ernest R. Mr. and Mrs. Read are members of
the Baptist Church, and Mr. Read himself is deacon in that body, a member of Brant
Masonic Lodge, No. 45, an Alderman of the city, and in politics a Reformer.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 531
«
ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, Manager of the Brantford Branch of the Bank of
British North America, was bom at St Fergus, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1 83 1.
He studied law in the office of Gray k Boyd, solicitors, Peterhead. Scotland, where he
also learned the banking business. He was in that office over six years, and came to
Canada in 1853, in the service of the Bank of British North America. He came to
the Brantford branch in 1854, as teller, and shortly afterwards became accountant,
and in 1864 was given the management of the branch. The bank was opened here
in 1845 with the late Mr. James Christie as agent, and at the time of Mr. Robertson's
coming to Brantford, Mr. C. F. Smithers, now the President of the Bank of Montreal,
was Manager of the Bank of British North America here. Mr. Smithers left in 1856,
and was succeeded by Mr. I. C. Greddes, who retained the management until 1864,
when Mr. Robertson became manager. He has therefore been in connection with the
banking interests in Brantford for nearly thirty years, a much longer time than any
other linker has ever been in the city. In 1878, on.his return from a visit to Britain
and continental Europe, he was presented with an illuminated address by the citizens,
and a very handsome silver dinner and dessert service, as a mark of public appreciation
of his long and valuable services to the business interests of Brantford. Mr. Robertson
took an active part in the establishment of the Brantford Young Ladies* College, and
has l)een President of the Board of Directors since its foundation. . He is a Director
of the Brantford Gas Company, and has been a member of the Board of Managers of
Zion Presbyterian Church since coming to Brantford. He has been several times
elected President of the St. Andrew's Society, an office he at present holds ; is Presi-
dent of the Brantford Curling Club, and was one of the oric^inal promoters of the
Brantford Curling and Skating Rink, and of the Victoria Curling and Skating Rink.
He is Captain of the Brantford Golf Club, and inti^uoed this excellent game into
Ontario in 1872. He was one of the original Directors of the Brant Memorial Asso-
ciation, and has for many years taken an active part in most^ of the public-spirited
movements of Brantford.
JOSEPH ROBINSON, Clerk of the First Division Court, County of Brant, was
bom in the City of Armagh, notth of Ireland, June 15th, 1818, and is the oldest of a
family of nine children bom to William and Mary Jane (Little) Robinson. The
parents were both natives of thp north of Ireland. Our subject, with his brother James,
came to Upper Canada in 1832, landing at York (Toronto), where he remained four
years learning the trade of house-pHinting, glazing and pa|>er-han^ing. After having
made and saved a little money, he went to Victoria College, where he remained two
winter sessions. He then went to Hamilton, and for twelve years enga<i:e.d in painting,
glazing, {laper- hanging, etc., and in the traffic of the goods of his trade. In 1842
he married Miss Hannah Sanders, a native of Yorkshire, England, by whom he had
three children : Mary Ann, deceased ; Eliza Jane, wife of John W. Jones, barrister,
Hamilton ; and Hannah A., deceased. Mrs. Robinson died in 1848. In 1859 he
went to California, and continued in the same line of business in San Francisco for
twenty years. In 1852 he married Miss Eliza Jane^ Jones — daughter of Stephen and
Mary (Smith) Jones, of Stony Creek) — by whom he had four children, viz., Stephen
James, doctor and gi*aduat« of McGill College ; Clara Kate, wife of Albert B. Briggs,
banker, Buffalo, IT. S.; and Josephine, all surviving. In 1869 he I'eturned to Brantford,
and soon afterwards received the appointment of Clerk of the Division Court, in which
cafiacity he still continues.
EBENEZER ROY, J. P., Brantford, is a retired merchant. He was bom in the
west of Fife, Scotland, February 28th, 1812. His father was a native of the parish
of Dunfermline, Scotland, and a manufacturer of bed and table linens ; he employed
about sixty hands in his manufactory, and was moderately successful in business.
532 H18TOKY OF BKANT COUNTY.
Some five or six years previoas to his death he retired from business, and finally passed
away at the age of 67 years. He married Elizabeth Keeler, a niece and ^ward of
Alexander Keeler, of the Royal British Navy. He was a lieutenant in the service,
but after retirement became captain by seniority. Alexander and Elizabeth Boy
were blessed with a family of five sons and one daughter. Four sons of this family
still survive. Mrs. Roy died at the age of fifty-six years. The subject of this sketdi
grew to manhood in his native country ; he then emigrated to Canada, stopping in
Montreal for one year, and thence came to Hamilton. About 1843 he came to Brant-
ford, and soon after established himself in a general mercantile trade. He carried on
this business for a i>eriod of fourteen years, and by strict attention to it and com-
mendable economy, combined with ceaseless energy, h(e succeeded in building up a
lai^e trade, and recired from active business life with a comfortable competence. Mr.
Roy is a Reformer in political opinion, but has never been a politician. For about
six years he represented the citizens of the ward in which he resides in the Town
Council. In religious principles Mr. Roy is a member of the First Presbyterian
Church, presided over by the Rev. Mr. Beattie, B.D. Mr. Roy was united in mar-
riage August 17th, 1848, to Mary Elder, also a native of Scotland. Two children
were bom to this union, both dying in childhood. Mrs. Roy departed this life in
1878. Mr. Roy is a quiet, practical man, of great force of character, and his name is
a guarantee for integrity, soundness and fair dealing. He is distinguished by simplicity
of character, purity, frankness and earnestness of purpose.
WALTER BOSVVELL RUBIDGE is the youngest son of the late Captain Charles
Rubidge, many years Registrar of the County of Peterborough. Captain Rubidge was
bom in London, England, on 30th April, 1787. In 1796 he entered the Royal Xavy
on board the Arrow sloop of war, commanded by his uncle. Captain Portlock, R. X.,
and from that time till the peace of 1815 he saw much active service, having beea
twice wounded, and en^ged in many of the most memorable naval battles of that
eventful period. In 1819 he, with his wife and three children, emigrated to Canada,
landing in Quebec on 24th June, and proceeding from thence as rapidly as then possible,
reached Cobourg on 19 th July of the same year. In 1820 he settled on a farm in
Otonabee, in the Newcastle District, where the subject of this sketch was bom on 27th
July, 1827. Captain Rubidge had a family of three sons and three daughters; the
eldest son died some years ago; the remainder are all living in Canada, married, and
have large families. He was appointed first Registrar of the County of Peterborough
in 1841, and held that office till his death. He was the oldest magistrate of what
formed the Newcastle District, and one of the oldest officers of the navy at the time
of his death, which occurred on the 5th of February, 1873, in his 86th year; his wife
(also a native of London) had preceded him to the grave only three or four yeais, at
the mature age of 81 or 82. The family are all members of the English Church, except
Mr. W. B. Rubidge, who left that church in 1870, and became associated with the
Bi^thren. ^Ir. Rubidge was educated at the Peterborough Grammar School under
the tuition of Rev. Moses Williamson, and read with the Rev. R. T. C. Taylor, rector,
preparatory to his examination for entering the Law Society. On becoming an enrolled
student he entered the law office of the late George B. Hall, then M.P. for the Colbome
District (now Peterborough Co.), and afterwards County Judga In 1847 he came to
Hamilton, and finished his student life in the office of the present Hon. Mr Justice
Burton and Charles A Sadler, Esq., his partner. On being admitted to the Bar in
1849, he immediately formed a partnership with the late Geo. S. Tiffany, Esq., of
Hamilton, and managed the business of that partnership — Mr. Tiffany being in Wash>
ington associated with Mr. (now Sir) Francis Hincks in effectuating the Reciprocity
Treaty — for the period of about one year, when he removed to Brantfotd, and entered
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 533
into partnership with the late lamented John Cameron, Esq., Clerk of the Peace for
this ooanty. This firm did a lars:e legal business. In 1856 Mr. Hubidge returned to
Peterborough, where he practised law alone for some years, during a great portion of his
residence there assisting his father in the Registry Office, at the same time carrying on
his practice. During the Southern Rebellion in the States, the Canadian Government,
unsolicited, appointed Mr. Rubidge Passport Officer for the County of Peterborough,
which office he held till the close of the war. Shortly after this he opened offices
simultaneously in Norwich ville and Otter ville, Oxford County. Business there not
proving satisfactory, through the influence of his brother-in-law, Hon. E. B. Wood,
late Chief-Justice of Manitoba, then one of the Sandfield Macdonald Government, he
was on the 2nd June, 1868, appointed Clerk, of the County Court, Deputy Clerk of the
Crown, and Registrar of the Surrogate Court for this county. On 22nd August, 1881,
under the provisions of the Judicature Act, the offices of Deputy Clerk of the Crown
and Deputy Registrar in Chancery (the latter then held by Judge Jones) were com-
bined under the title of Local Registrar of the High Court of Justice, which office,
along with those of Clerk of the County Court and R^;i8trar of the Surrogate Court, he
now holda On 15th May, 1852, he married Miss H. A. Martin, the elder daughter of
the late Dr. P. "Martin (the younger daughter afterwards being married to the late
Chief-Justice Wood). Mr. and Mrs. Rubidge have had ten children, four daughters and
six sons, all now living except one sou, Greorge Bertram, who was drowned near the
Rev. Abram Nelles' residence, in Grand River Canal, in August, 1870. Mr. Rubidge
is a Commissioner for taking Affidavits in the Counties of Peterborough, Victoria, Went-
worth and Brant, and a Notary Public for Ontario ; and with the exception of James
Wilkes, Esq., is the oldest appointed Commissioner and Notary in this county. He
alao held when a young roan an Ensigncy in the Colbome District (Peterborough)
Militia and a Lieutenancy, in Captain Henry Racey's Company of the late Gore District
Militia, if we recollect aright.
THOMAS S. SHENSTON, R^trar of the County of Brant, was bom in London,
England, June 25th, 1882 ; is the son of Benjamin and Mary (Strahan) Shenston, and
is remotely related to the poet Shenstone. When Mr. Shenston "was about nine years
of age, the family emigrated to Upper Canada, and after sojourning one year near
the Town of Dundas, County of Wentworth, went to the Township of Woolwich,
County of Waterloo, ten miles north of the Town of Guelph, taking t jifo and a half
days to make the journey with two yoke of oxen. There Thomas had ample oppor-
tunities for exercise in swinging the axe in the compact woodland, without the diversion
of hunting up a school-house conveniently, the nearest being at Guelph. Two years
later the family removed to the Township of Thorold, in the Niagara District, near the
'' Decew Falls," on a hundred acre farm, purchased from Nicolas Smith. This farm
proved to be a heavy clay and unproductive, and Mr. Shenston became discouraged,
and prevailed on his father, in 1837, to allow him to go to St. Catharines and learn
the asuldle and harness trade, and while there he became a volunteer, during 1838, to
fight the rebels, being in Captain Mittleberger's company, under Col. Clark. In 1841
Mr. Shenston went to Chatham to settle and start in business for himself, but the
climate not agreeing with him he moved to East Woodstock, where he did an exten-
sive business at his trade, and erected, among other buildings, the east half of the
three-story brick block, known as the *' Elgin Block." In 1848 he had his dwelling
house, shop and the Elgin Block, destroyed by fire while uninsured. During 184^,
1847 and 1848, he was a member of the Council of the District of Brock, as the repre-
sentative of the Township of East Oxford, and for several years he was School Trustee
for the Town of Woodstock. In 1849, when 27 years of age, Mr. Shenston was
appointed Magistrate, and during the last two years of his residence in that county,
634 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
he did more magisterial business than all the other seventy-five magistrates in the
ooanty. In 1849 Mr. Shenston sold out his premises and business, and for a year or
two before he left that county he was Secretary-Treasurer of the Woodstock and Nor-
wich Road Company, County Clerk of Oxford, and Secretary of the Board of ELdaca-
tion for that county, and a School Trustee for the Town of Woodstock. In 1852 he
was Census Commissioner for the county. On January 21st, 1853, when the County
of Brant was foimed, he was appointed Registrar, and has held that office ever since.
This appointment necessitated his removal to Brantford, the county town. In 1853
he was appointed a Magistrate for the County of Brant, and Commissioner in Qaeen's
Bench. From January 1st, 1869, in a house furnished rent free by Ignatius €V>ck-
shutt, he sustained an Orphans* home foi* twenty or twenty -two orphan girls, bein^,
however, aided to the extent of one-half by Mr. Cockshutt for the last five years.
He is Senior Deacon of the First Baptist Church, and, with trifling exceptions, has be^i
Superintendent of the Sunday school of that church for over twenty-five years, Mr.
Shenston, who is literally a self-educated man, holds several other offices, and is ever
busy with his pen He was married, December 30, 1843, to Mary Lazenby, of Cast
Oxford, and their family numbered six children, two of whom died in infancy. Naomi
Ann is the wife of Richard R. Donnelly, an extensive publisher, Chicago ; Reuben
Strahan learned the drug business, but abandoned it for the art of printing, and is now
one of the proprietors of the Brantford Expositor ; Joseph Newton is Deputy Regis-
trar for his father ; and Ruth Davidson is the wife of Rev. Elmore Harris, pastor of
a Baptist Church in Toronto, Ont.
SHULTZ BROS, are proprietors of the planing-mill on Albion Street, Brant-
ford. This industry was established by George C. Shultz as a hand business at the
same place, and was carried on by him alone for about three years. Two brothers
then, Henry £. and William D., became associated with him under the firm name of
Shultz Bros. One or two other men have also, from time to time, been associated
with them, but the name of the firm has not been changed About twelve years ago,
they purchased 200 feet frontage on Albion Street, on which they erected the plan-
ing-miil and office. The mill proper is of frame — 58 x 100 feet square, two stories
in height, which also includes the engine-house, and this building* has been fitted up
with the best improved machinery, run by a 35 horse-power engine. They employ
an average of twenty-five men in the business, ranging from ten in winter to thirty-
two in summer. They make up and supply all kinds of supplies and material to
builders in this and other counties. In connection, they also operate a box factory,
and supply box materials to almost all the establishments in the city using boxes, and
make up boxes themselves as well. They have lately erected a two story brick
structure, 35 x 48, which adjoins the frame building on the east side, and which en-
ables them to fill an order for an oi'dinai^^i-ame building inside of twenty-four hours.
All the three brothers are practical mechanics, and have the entire supervision of the
business themselves, and employ only the best skilled men. The general business for
the past year amounted to $50,000. The father of the Shultz Bros., John C. Shultz,
was bom in Demerara, South America, and came to Brant County about 46 years
ago. He was a book-keeper by occupation, and was in the employment of Strobridge
k. Botham, Brantford, for eight or nine years, after which he lived in retirement till
his death, which occurred in March, 1867. He married Caroline Lampkins, an
English lady, and by her had a family of ten children, seven of whom survive, all in
Brantford. Their mother is still living, and also resides in Brantford. Geoi^ B.
was born in Kingston, Ontario, Oct. 28th, 1841. He learned the carpenter trade
with William Watt, and then taught his brothers the same trade. He is che senior
member of the fi.rm of Shultz Bros. He was married in October, 1869, to* Elizabeth
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 535
Squires, a native of England, and to this union there were three children, one only
surviving, named Ham mill. Mrs. Shultz died May 5 th, 1877. Mr. Shultz again
married in May, 1880, the partner of his choice being Jennie S. Hammill, a Canadian
by birth, by whom there is one child, Laura. Mr. Shultz attends the First Baptist
Church, and his wife is a member of Brant Avenue Methodist Church.
JOSEPH SHUTTLEWORTH (deceased), was bom in Lancashire, England, in
1807, and spent his younger days in his native land. In the year 1830 he came to
Canada, settling in Brantford, where he was engaged in the distilling business for
some years with Mr. Ma why. By trade he was a baker, and was proprietor of a
bakery and general confectionery for several years. Subsequently he was engaged in
the butchering trade for many years, and then moved on to a farm. In 1867 he came
to Brantford, where he died on December 24 th' of that year. Mr. Shuttleworth was
a member of the Methodist Church, and one of its charter members. He married in
Brantford Ellen Duckworth, also a native of Lancashire, England, by whom there
was a family of six children — five living. The mother is also living, and enjoying
good health in her sixtieth year. James K. Shuttleworth, canner of fruits, Brantford,
was bom August 7th, 1848, and received his early training in Brantford. When quite
a young man he engaged in the grocery and fruit business, and when nineteen years of
age bought out E. Sims <fe Son. This business he carried on for twelve consecutive
years, when he entered the wholesale foreign and domestic fruit trade and canning
industry. In 1875 his brother Joseph M. entered as a partner, and in 1878 went to
England in connection with the business and became a*member of the firm of Simonds
& Co., fruit brokers, Liverpool, England, for which firm he acts as agent. In June,
li(82, another brother, George, became associated in business. Shuttleworth Brod.
enjoy an excellent trade in Ontario, and have established an agency in Chicago. James
K. is a member of the A.O.U.W. Lodge, a Reformer in politics, and, with his wife, is
an adherent of Brant Avenue Methodist Church. He married, October 1881, Martha,
daughter of Wesley Howell, by whom he has one child, Hugh R.
S. SIMMONS, grain dealer and merchant, Brantford, was bom in England, March
7th, 1826, and is a son ot Samuel Simmons, a farmer, of England. He came to
Canada in 1834, and after sojourning a short time at Cobourg, Ont., bought a farm
in the County of Oxford, Ont., where he died May 5th, 1853. He married Jane
Bacon, also a native of England, by whom he had a family of nine children, three
still living, and the subject of this biography is the only one of them residing in this
county. Mrs. Samuel Simmons died in 1854, just a year after her husband. Our
subject was brought up on the farm in Oxford County with his father from 1834 till
1852, a period of eighteen years. He then came to Brantford, and a year later
entered the grocery and grain business, which he has carried on with sufficient success
to enable him always to pay his debts and have something left. He is known through-
out the county and elsewhere as a large buyer of grain. In 1852 he married Ann
Topham, a native of Ireland, and had a family of seven, five of whom survive, viz.:
John F., with his father in business ; Mary J.; James H., also with his father ;
Margaret L., wife of Wm. K Mann, coal merchant, Brantford ; and Elizabeth. Mrs.
S. is a member of Wellington Street Methodist Church, and Mr. S. regularly attends
services in the same church. He is a Reformer in politics, but is too busy to become
an office-holder.
CLAYTON SLATER, proprietor of Craven Cotton Milh, Holmedale, near Brantford,
was born at Bumoldswick, Yorkshire, England, January 22nd, 1839, and is a son of
John and Mary (Roberts) Slater. Mr. Slater is owner of a large cotton mill at his
native place (Bumoldswick), where lie also learned the manufacturing business. On
May 20th, 1880, the foundation for the Holmedale Cotton Mill was laid, and the
536 HISTORY OF BRAUT COUNTY. /
eetablishment was opened for business in May, 1881. Mr. Slater erected* the building,
but the business is now owned by a stock company, although he is the heaviest stock-
holder. He 18 also treasurer, director, and manager of the mills. Mr. Slater has
recently erected and put into operation a wincey factory adjoining the Holmedale
Cotton Mills. He is a member of the First Baptist Church, and has a famUy of two
sons and one daughter.
JOHN SMITH, Sheriff of the County of Brant since this county was separated
from Wentworth and Halton, was bom on the '* Grand River Tract " on the present
site of the City of Brantford, February 9th, 1808. His grandfather, for whom he
was named, was a United Empire Loyalist, and taken prisoner during the Revolu-
tionary War, and liberated about the time that a British ship, passing up the North
(or Hudson) River, broke the chain that was strung across that stream. The parents
of our subject were Joseph and Charlotte (Douglas) Smith, both natives of the Empire
State. Mrs. Smith is a ^descendant, in the sixth generation, from William Douglas,
who came to America near the middle of the seventeenth century and settled at New
London, Conn. Hon. Stephen Arnold Douglas, United States Senator for many
years, from Illinois, was of the same branch of the Douglas family. John was edu-
cated iif country schools at Blenheim, County of Oxford, and Smithville, County of
Lincoln, losing his father in the latter township about 1838. He farmed until about
seventeen years of age, and clerked for a merchant at Grimsby and Hamilton three
or four years ; open^ a store for himself at Paris in 1831 ; removed to Hamilton in
1837, and after merchandising there for three years, returned to Paris, and was in trade
there until 1853, when he was*appointed Sheriff of the newly set-off county — all the
sheriff the County of Brant has ever had. He is very punctual and efficient in dis-
charging his duties. Sheriff Smith was secretary of the first meeting held at Hamil-
ton after Lord Durham had made his report on the status of the Provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, recommending their union, which took place two or three years
later (1841), the Hamilton meeting approving of the recommendations of the report.
Sheriff Smith is a member of the Church of England, and served at one time as
a Warden of Grace Church at Brantford. He is a man much respected for his good
social and moral qualitie& In 1834 he married Miss Mary Sheldon, a native of this
Province and a daughter of Wm. B. Sheldon, the pioneer merchant of Hamilton, Went-
worth County, and one of the Commissioners under the Government in constructing
the Burlington Canal, connecting the waters of Lake Ontario with the Bay, the pre-
sent harbour at Hamilton. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had 6 children, of whom two
survive — Charles Edwin, Deputy Sheriff under his father, and Emma Jane^ wife of
Charles Bruce Nimmo, who resides in Port Huron, Michigan.
SAMUEL SNIDER, Assessor of the City of Brantford, was bom in the Township
of Trafalgar, in the County of Halton, Province of Ontario, October 29th, 1825. He
is a son of David Snider, native of Pennsylvania, who moved with his parents to
Maryland when quite young. After the Revolutionary War, at about the age of twenty,
he came with his parents to Canada. As one of the U. E. Loyalists be became a
pioneer in the County of Halton. He lived until his death on his farm, situated on
Lot No. 6, 2nd concession north of Dundas Street — old survey — ^in the Township of
Trafalgar. He died Feb. 23rd, 1873, at the ripe age of 78 years and 6 months. His
wife was Eliza Marlatt, a native of New Jersey, who came with her parents to
Canada with the Loyalists. Her death occurred Oct. 22nd, 1851, aged 60 years,
Mr. Samuel Snider, the subject of this sketch, was the seventh of a family of ten
children, of whom eight are still living. He received a provincial education in his
native township, and was trained to farming, working with his father until his marriage
to Huldah, sixth daughter of Peter Kenney, Esq., of the same township, in January,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 537
1850. After his marriage he carried on lumbering business along with farming, but
met with serious losses by fire, losing mill-house and barns. He removed to Paris in
1858, in the County of Brant, and in 1865 came to the City, then Town, of Brantford.
During those years he was engaged in the agricultural and implement trade and grain
commission business. He received his present appointment as Assessor in 1872, and
because of his faithful service has been retained in that office. His happy marriage
hae been blessed by a family of five children, viz., Hettie £., widow of the late Geo.
P. Batson, solicitor ; P. Wellington, financial agent of the W. U. Telegraph Company,
St. John, N.B. ; George A., photographer, Brantford ; D. William, in the ministry of
the Methodist Church of Canada, and Ida R., the youngest daughter, in the parental
home. Mr. Snider has alwavs been and is a staunch supporter of all temperance
reform, and has for a long time sustained an official connection with the Methodist
Church, of which he with his family are members, and worship in Brant Avenue
Church. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative.
A. SPENCE, manufacturer of buggies, carriages, waggons, sleighs, and general
blacksmithing, Brantford, was bom in the north of Scotland, August 8th, 1830, and is
a son of Thomas and Catherine Spence. His paternal grandfather was John Spence,
and his mother's father's name was Magness. A. Spence having partially learned
blacksmithing in Scotland, left there in 1850 for Canada, and worked at his trade in
Quebec and Belleville, and then learned the carriage business in Hamilton with
Williams k Couper, who at that time employed seventy men, and did the largest busi-
ness in Canada of the kind. He remained there three years, and on April 21st, 1854,
came to Brantford, where he first worked for Smith & McNought, who failed during
the crisis of 1857. Mr. Spence then rented a shop on a lot near Ids present stand, and
started business with one assistant, soon after employing three or four hands. On June
12th, 1864, he was burned out and then bought his present lot, built two brick shops,
and was in them five weeks from the time of the fire. He added shops as his business
required them, and he now employs twenty hands ; his place is second in size in the
city. His sales are mostly local, but he ships a great deal' to Manitoba. He is a mem-
ber of Brant Lodge, No. 45, and of the A.O.U.W., Lodge 71, of which he was a
charter member, and Master for the first two terms. He has been a Councillor for
many years, and for several years was one of the Board of School Trustees, and in politics
is a Reformer, " Clear Grit." Mr. Spence was married in January, 1854, to Sarah
Speer, a native of the north of Ireland. They had two children, both living, but his
wife died November 16th, 1858. He was again married in September, 1860, to Mar-
garet Spence, a native of the north of Scotland, and has had two children by this union.
Mr. Spence, wife and family, are members of the Zion Presbyterian Church, of which he
has been an elder for the past twenty-two jears.
JOHN SPENCE, collector of Inland Be venue for the Brantford District, was bom
in Ireland, July 27, 1830, and is a son of Henry and Ellen (Singleton) Spence. who
never came to Canada, and are now deceased. They were the parents of six sons and
two daughters, of whom four sons and two daughters survive. The subject of this
biography is the only one of the family in Brant County. He was brought up and
educated in Ireland, and passed his early life on his father^s farm. Coming to Canada
in 1854, he settled in the County of Peel, Ont., where he found employment as clerk
in a general store. Here he remained two years, when he went to London, Ont., and
acted as book-keeper in a general store for six months. From London he moved to
Oshawa, Ont, and was assistant for W. H. Gibbs & Co., for a short time. With
an intention of settling in Waukesha, State of Wisconsin, he went there on a visit to
his brother, but returned to Canada, and in a short time entered the grocery and liquor
business in Toronto, which he carried on successfully for ten years. During four of
32
538 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
those years he lepi'esented St. Andrew's Ward in the Cit(7 Council, and St. Patrick's
Ward for four years in the School Board. In 1 868 he retired from business and
entered the Excise office as Second-class Excise Officer, in which he remained 2 years.
After an examination, he was promoted to First Excise Officer. Two years later he
was promoted to the Deputy-Col lee torship at Kingston, in which he remained twenty
months. He was then appointed Collector of the London Division, which position be
held for nearly five years, and until March 15, 1880, from which time, on account of
ill health, he had leave of absence, until in February, 1882, he was appointed Collector
for the Brantford District. Mr. Spence is a member of St. Jude's (Episcopal) Church.
He has five children living, viz., Lucinda Ellen, Francis Henry, Elizabeth Margaret,
John Hennins: and Catharine Frances. Frederick William Alexander is deceased.
JOHN H. ^STRATFORD, Brantfoixi, was bom in Oswego, KY., May 13tb, 1840,
and is a son of William H. Stratiord. He came to Brantfoid with his father and
mother when but an infant, and was educated in the public schools of this city. When
fourteen years of age he joined his father in the drug business, and remained with him
until 1869, being at that time general manager of the business, which was entirely
wholesale. Previous to this he was engaged in other mercantile operations, and in
1866 commenced the lumbering and oil business in Brantford and other |X)ints in
Canada and the United States. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Henry Yates,
which has been continued to the present time, and with success. Mr. Stratfoid formed
a limited partnership in 1870 with Donald 2^icholson, since deceased, and Robert
Chisholm, both of Hamilton, for the purpose of constructing that portion of the Great
Western Railway between Glencoe and Sinicoe. That work was completed in 1872,
and affiiirs wound up and the partnership dissolved. The contract as performed proved
a very difficult one, owing to the construction at the same time of the Canada Southern,
but gave entire satisfaction to the Great Western Railway Company. He has been
engaged in numerous other mercantile transactions. He was married in 1868 to Sarah
Jason Harris, a native of Toronto, and fifth daughter of the late Thomas D. Harris, a
prominent wholesale hardware merchant there. He is a member of the Church of
England, and a Conservative in politics.
WILLIAM H. STRATFORD, retired druggist, Brantford, was bom at Shecrness,
County of Kent, England, September 12, 1808. His father, John Stiatford, M.D.,
was bom at Penn Bucks, near Beaconsfield, England ; he was a member of the Royal
College of Surgeons, London, and Surgeon in Lord Grantley's. Regiment, one of Eng-
land's home guards during the then wars, while stationed at Sheeniess. On the death
of his wife Dr. John Stratford came to Canada in 1833, joining; his eldest son Samuel.
He resided at Bytown^ now Ottawa, and there took up the active duties of his profes-
sion, and soon built up an extensive practice ; and while at Bytown he also officiated
as Military Hospital Steward. Returning to London, England, he was summoned to
give testimony before the House of Lords in favour of Lord Durham's report of Canada.
On his return to Canada he resided at Woodstock, to which point Dr. Samuel John
Stratford had removed, and at Brantford with his son. He died at the latter place, and
was buried at the former in 1845, aged 73 years. Dr. John Stratford married Mary
Ann Thomas, of Great Marlow, Bucks, and by her had six children, William H., the
subject of this sketch, being the only survivor. His eldest brother. Dr. Samuel John
Stratford, was educated at Rochester, County of Kent, England, and at SK George's
and Westminster Hospitals, London — a pupil of William Charles Bell, lecturer on
anatomy, physiology and pathology, Great Windmill Street, London, and also a pupil
of the celebrated physician, Zuthrie, at his eye infirmary. Dr. S. J. Stratford was a
member of the Roysd College of Surgeons, London, and having obtained his diploma,
he received a commission as Assistant Surgeon in the 72nd Regiment, Scotch High-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 539
landers, stationed at Dublin, which commission he sold on coming to Canada. He
removed from Bytown to Woodstock, where he resided nearly twenty years, having
during that time an extensive practice, being widely known and respected in this part
of Canada. Sir John Colbome, then Military Governor of Canada, presented him, as
also some other settlers, retired officers, land grants in the vicinity. From Woodstock
he removed to Toronto, where he lectured on anatomy for Dr. Rolph. Subsequently he
went to Auckland, New Zealand, his letters from there containing such interesting and
graphic reports, and being widely ))rinted in the English papers, conduced very materi-
ally to the large emigration which so rapidly peopled that beautiful island. He died
at Auckland in 1871, leaving a large practice to hia son-in-law, Dr. Wright, late of
Toronto. Wm. A. Stratford was educated at Eton and Dublin, and was a pupil at the
Royal College of Sun^eons, Dublin; also with Mr. Carmichae , M.D., Surgeon to the
Bichmond Surgical Hospital in that city. Mr. Stratford preceded his father to Canada,
•ailing from the London docks with his brother Samuel to New York in 1831. In that
city he resided three years, and afterwards went to Oswego, where he married his first
wife, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. He came to Brantford in 1844,
where his wife died, much respected. He carried on a retail drug business up to 1856,
when he was joined by his son John, the business after a time becoming retail and
wholesale, drugs and groceries. In 1869 his next son, Joseph, came into the firm, and
the business became almost exclusively wholesale. In 1871 his son John retired from
the business, and in 1875 W. H. Stratford retired, after a business life of over thirty
years in this city. His son Joseph is now an extensive wholesale druggist, keeping
a general country store supply of drugs and grocers' sundries, and woollen mill and
naval store merchant.
B. G. TISDALE, proprietor of the Brantford Stove Works, was born in Ancaster
Township, County of Wentworth, Ontario, October 28, 1814. His father, Lot Tis-
dale, was a native of Freetown, near Boston, State of Massachusetts, whose father
being a XT. E. Loyalist, moved from his native place to New Brunswick. In 1783 he
came west and settled in the County of Norfolk, Ontario. In 1806, and during hia
residence there, married Ann Swain, a native of £ns;1and, and with her moved into
Ancaster Township. From there they moved, in 1830, to Burford Township, where
both died. Their family numbered fourteen children, of whom three died young. The
subject of this biography was the third child, and was fifteen years of age when his
parents went to Burford Township, and remained on the home farm till he was twenty-
six years of age, at which period he commenced farming for himself, and so continued
untd April, 1846, when he came to Brantford and engaged in selling stoves, on salary.
In the summer of 1850 he entered into partnership with Messrs. Grould & Bennett,
with wbom he carried on business for three years, when the partnership was dissolved,
Mr. Tisdale taking what they called the up-town business, and continued this business
for three years, when he built an extensive foundry of his own, and has since then
been engaged in the manufacture of stoves and castings, his business being known aa
the Brantford Stove Works. On January 30, 1840, he married Elizabeth Pickle,
a native of New Brunswick and a dauchter of Joseph and Mary (Birdsall) Pickle,
and to this union two children were bom — Edwin J., who died in infancy, and
Arthur B., who is now engaged with his fatlier in business. He was born April 17,
1850, and on September 25, 1878, was married to Mrs. Susie (Coleman) Brocks,
by whom he had one child that died in infancy.
GEORGE ROBINSON YANNORMAN, Q.C., County Crown Attorney, and
Clerk of the Peace for the County of Brant, and senior member of the law firm of
VanNorman k Purves, was born March 12th, 1821, at Canandaigua, in the State of
New York, and is American boi-n and of American parentage. His parents removed
540 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
to Ontario in the fall of the same year, taking np their residence at Normandale, in the
County of Norfolk, where the father, Mr. Joseph VanNorman, with Mr. Tilaon, after-
wards the founder of Tilsonburg, and Hiram Capron, afterwards of Paris, established
in partnership a blast furnace for the manufacture of iron from the ore found in that
neighbourhood. Mr. VanNorman was educated partly at the District School for the
then London District, near Yittoria^ finisning at the Cobourg Academy. In 1841 he
entered the law office at Simcoe, Norfolk County, of the late Judge Salmon, where he
remained two years, and finished his career as a student in the ofiice of the late Hon.
Eobert Baldwin Sullivan. At the expiration of his time he was offered and declined a
partnership with Mr. Sullivan. In Trinity Term, 1846, he was sworn in as an attorney,
and in Hilaiy Term, 1847, called as a Barrister-at-law. He b^gan practising his pro-
fession in Toronto, and continued there until 1849, when being urgently requested by
his father, who had become involved in his heavy business transactions at Normandale
and Marmora, to assist in the adjustment of the large interests involved, he removed
to Simcoe. At the time of his removing to Simcoe he was in partnership with Dr.
McMichael, Q.C., of Toronto. In Simcoe he practised his profession about 9 or 10
years, having as a partner during the last two or three years of his residence there the
Lite Hon. M. H. Foley, who completed his studies with Mr. VanNorman. In January,
1859, he removed to the City of Brantford, and in March of that year was appointed
County Crown Attorney. In 1863 he took into partnership Mr. F. M. Griffin, a
former student in his office, severing this connection in 1866. On the 28th February,
1873, he was made a Queen's Counsel by the Dominion Government and by the Ontario
Government In 1874 he became ex officio Clerk of the Peace by the decease of the
late John Cameron, the former incumbent of that office. His son, Mr. F. VanNorman,
now a practising advocate of Minneapolis, Minn., became a partner in 1873, and re-
mained in this connection until 1876. Subsequently to this time Mr. VanNorman
continued the practice of his profession alone until the formation of his present connec-
tion with Mr. Purves. Mr. VanNorman's professional career has been eminently
successful. As an advocate he holds a high position among his confreres of the Ontario
Bar, and is always listened to with attention by the Court He^has strong logical
powers, is possessed of a strong common sense, which is seldom met with among the
juniors of the Bar of to-day, who, according to lay opinion, prefer technicality to reason,
and rigorous rules to broad equities. Mr. VanNorman's large experience as counsel,
his legal acquirements, his devotion to the interests of a client, have secured for him
the well-deserved reputation of being an excellent lawyer, and one of the leading
counsel in Western Ontario. The distinction given to Mr. VanNorman over ten years
ago, by both Federal ^d Provincial Governments, of his silk gown, when but very few
barristers west of Toronto were honored with a Queen's Counsel's commission, is an
evidence of his professional character and ability. The Hon. £. B. Wood, the late
Chief-Justice of Manitoba, received his commission as Queen's Counsel contempo-
raneously with Mr. VanNorman, and these were the only two gentlemen in Brantford
whose professional status was thus elevated. Mr. VanNorman's relations with both
Bench and Bar have always been most cordial, and he is held by the profession gene-
rally in high esteem.
ALFRED WATTS, Sr., member of the well-known mercantile firm of A. Watts &
Co., Brantford, was bom in London, England, in 1830. His parents were Charles and
Eliza (Riddiford) Watt& In 1832 the family emigrated to Niagara, Canada, where
they remained two or three years, when they removed to Brantford. Here Mr. Charles
Watts engaged at first in mercantile pursuits in a modest way, but gradually increased
his business until he controlled a wholesale grocery trade recognized as one of the best
in the place. He was a large manufacturer of soap and candles, and being a practical
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 541
clear-headed man, was very successful, and at the time of his death, in 1868, was one
of the leading citizens of Brantford. Alfred Watts, our subject, received his early
education from private tutors, and subsequently spent a year at the Upper Canada
College, Toronto. He then entered his father's store, where he received a good prac-
tical business training. He was manager of his father's soap and candle manufactory
from 1848 until 1851, and then went to £ns:land. Returning the same year he started
a distUery in Brantford, but in 1863 sold it out. About the same time he bought the
Bunnell Flour Mills on the canal, and has been ever since actively engaged in the mill-
ing business. In 1867 he purchased the mercantile interests of his father, and in 1871
took Mr. Robert Henry into partnership, since which time the firm* has been known as
A Watts & Co. They are largely interested in the manufacture of soap and candles,
being proprietors of the Brantford Soap Works, one of the largest establishments of the
kind in the Dominion. They manufacture a very superior article and supply a con-
stantly growing trade that extends from the Maritime Provinces to British Columbia,
their transactions, which are steadily on the increase, amounting to over half a million
dollars annually. Mr. Watts owns a large hardware store at Paris, Ont., which is
managed by his eldest son, Charles. Although never seeking to be other than an active
practical business man, Mr. Watts has to bear his share of local official duties. He has
been Reeve, Deputy Reeve and Councillor, and has held office about twelve years.
Since 1875 he has been ineligible for civic offices owing to the terms of his purchase
of the water-power previously owned by the city. Under its management there was
an annual loss of from $4,000 to $5,000, but since Mr. Watts obtained possession of it,
it has become a paying and greatly improved property. That Mr. Watts has been
an eminently successful business man is fully attested by the enviable reputation he
enjoys wherever known, as well as by his excellent*financial standing. He is a staunch
adherent of the Conservative party and a lirm believer in its Protective Tariff Polioy.
Mr. Watts married, in 1857, Clara, daughter of T. Richard Brooke, of Toronto, by
whom he had four children, two only now living. His first wife dying, he married, in
1868, Mary A Brooke, sister of deceased, by whom he has had four children, three of
whom are now living.
JAMES F. WATT, of Workman & Watt, brick-yards, Brantford, was bom in
Brantford, June 12, 1849, and is a son of William Watt, whose biography appears in
another part of this work. James F. Watt received his early training in Brantford,
and at one time was connected with his father, for thirteen years, in the planing-
mill business, and in 1880 became a member of the firm of Workman & Watt He
studied under an architect, at Toronto, named James Grand, for two years, and be-
sides being practically engas;ed in his father's business, has kept the books and managed
the financial affinirs for him for some years. He is an adherent of Zion Presbyterian
Church, and in politics a Reformer.
WILLIAM WATT, Mayor of the City of Brantford, and contractor and proprietor
of the planing mills and lumber-yard on Waterloo Street in that city, was bom in
Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in July, 1818, and is a son of the late James
Watt, a iiative of the same shire, and a farmer by occupation, his death occurring in
Scotland in 1862. James Watt was married to Elizabeth Steel, a native of the
parish of Fy vie, Aberdeenshire, and had a family of eight children, seven sons and
one daughter, of whom there survive five sons and the daughter, two of the sons being
in Canada. The fifth son, William, the subject of our sketch, was reared in Mony-
musk, and attended, only during winter months, the parochial school in the place, till
he became 15 years of age. In summer time he assisted his father on the farm. At
the age of 16 he was apprenticed for four years to the joiner's trade, and then worked
for three years as a journeyman for various employers. In August, 1843, he emi-
542 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
grated to Canada by himself, and remained in Hamilton and Dundas, Upper Canada, for
but a few days, then came to Brantford, where he was first employed by one David
White, for the winter. In the spring he received an engagement with William
Mellish, which extended over three years. His next employment came from Van-
Brocklin k Co., foundrymen, on a job of manufacturing separators, but he shortly
established himself in the building business, in which he has ever since been engaged.
About the year 1855 he erected a shop near the spot where the present First Biskptist
Church stands, and ran the machinery for five years by horse-power. Finding his
business fast increasing, he bought the land on which the present factory stands, and
erected a planing-mill, run by steam-power, which stood for a year, when it was burnt
down. This event necessitated the erection of the present extensive planing-mill,
which is fitted up with the latest improved machinery. For the last 20 years he has
done the largest business in his line of trade in the county. Mr. Watt has been a
member of the Mechanics' Institute for 40 years, and Treasurer of it for many years,
until two years ago, when he resigned. He is also a member of the St. Aiidrews'
Society, and has been Treasurer of it for nearly 30 years, as well as President for one
year. He was one of the promoters of the Royal Loan and Savings Society, and has
been Vice-President and a Director since its formation. He took an active part in
establishing the Brantford Young Ladies' College, and has always been identified with
it as one of its Directors. He has been a member of Zion Presbyterian Church for
many years, and Chairman of the Managers' Board for the past 13 years. He was
elected a member of the Town Council in 1868. In 1882 he was elected Mayor of the
city, and al the end of the second term was re-elected by acclamation, In politics he
has always been a Reformer. He married Oct 2nd, 1844, Elsie Cruickshank,
daughter of John Cruickshank, farmer, Gourdas, Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, and Sarah
Milne, daughter of Alexander Milne, farmer. Petty, Fyvie, by whom he has a family
of eight children, viz.: William, of the firm of Watt & Shenston, publishers of the
Brantford Expositor ; Elsie, wife of A. A. Allan, wholesale furrier and hatter,
Toronto ; James F., of Workman & Watt, proprietors of the brick-yard, Biantford ;
Lizzie, wife of Stephen Nairn, coal merchant, Toronto ; Helen, wife of William H.
Harvey, general merchant, Meaford, Ont; Mary, wife of James G. Cockshutt, Presi-
dent of the Cockshutt Plough Works, Brantford; Robert, travelling salesman of Adam
Hope & Co., hardware merchants, Hamilton; and Bella, at home.
WM. WATT, Jb., editor and publisher, bom at Brantford, Sept. 29th, 1845, son of
Wm. Watt, present Mayor of Brantford ; educated at the public and grammar schools ;
matriculated in the University of Toronto in 1862, and graduated in 1866 with the
degree of B.A., and as silver medalist in modern languages. Sul>sequently, in 1873,
he received the degtee of LL.B. from the same institution. Adopting the legal pro-
fession, he studied in the office of Hugh MacMahon, Brantford, and Strong, Ed;3r «fe
Grahame, Toronto, and was admitted an attorney, and called to the Bar in Michiielmas
Term, 1869. He practised his profession for several years in Brantford, some time in
partnership with Mr. Daniel Brooke. In 1874, with Mr. W. C. Trimble, the foi-mcr
manager, he purchased the Brantford Expositor^ a Liberal journal with which he had
been for some time i ientified as a writer. In 1878, Mr. Trimble's health failing, he
bought out his interest, and devoted himself entirely to the newspaper and publishing
business. In 1882 he took into partnership Mr. K. S. Shenston, son of the County
Ee^istrar, the firm now being Watt & Shenston. He is a Libeml in politics, very
active in the pnimotion and advocacy of Liberal principles, and known in connection
with the newspaper press as a terse, vigorous writer, strongly attached to and zealously
upholding the {mrty with ^hich he is associated. He married November 10, 1875,
Kebecca S., second daughter of Robert Balmer, Esq., of Oakvilte, by whom he has
three children, a son and two daughters.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 543
ME. W. E. WELDING, manufacturer of atoneware, whose portrait we give else-
where, was bom in the Village of Caledonia, Livingston County, State of New York,
Sept. 17th, 1819, and is the youngest sou of James Welding, a native of York County,
Pa., a farmer by occu[>ation. At the age of 23 years James Welding left the home of hia
childhood and emigrated to the State of Maryland, locating in the city of Baltimore.
Here he married Nancy Agnes Purdy, a native of that city. After a residence of a
few years in Baltimore he removed with his family, consisting of his wife and three
children, to Caledonia, N.Y., where three more children were ad(}ed to his family,
when his wife died, 5tli December, 1824. Mr. Welding moved thence to Hopewell,
Ontario Co., wheio, 7 years later, he married Cathariue Miller Gamber. A favourable
opportunity offered for more satisfactory results in the pursuit of his calling, and he
subsequently chanjjed his residence, and this time located near the Village of Knowles-
ville, Orleans Co. After a few years of moderate success in his farming he chose a
more retired life, and removed to Jeddo, near Medina, same county, where he died at
the age of 76 years, having been 25 years a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Mr. W. £. Welding, the subject of this sket<;h, grew to manhood in the State
of N.Y,, and when 18 years of age left his father's home, and with some friends
embarked on the Erie Canal and " took to the saddla" He travelled between Buffalo
and Albany twice in this capacity, when he was promoted to the position of bowsman,
and made his third trip to Albany, when, from severe illness, he was obliged to resign
his post and return to his home. Kecovering his health, and having a liberal education,
he commenced teaching school in the vicinity of Brockport, and taught during five con-
secutive winters, and emigrated to Canada in 1841, locating 3 miles east of Brantford,
where he again commenced teaching, and taught for three years, and was then married.
Being early taught the priuc pies and practice of total abstinence from intoxicating
liquors, he took the lead in organizing in his school and district the first total abstinence
society ever organized in any rural district in the County of Brant. T.e movement
met with great favour, and ihe society grew and prospered numerically, and in its work
of reclaiming the intemperate. Soon after the close of his third year of teaching, he
commenced travelling for an agricultural warehouse in Toronto, the society controlling
it publishing a monthly farmers' pa{ er, entitled TJie American Agricultural and
Canada Farmer, In this cajiacity he travelled four years, being very successfuL He
then came (to Brantford, and shortly after accepted the position of general travelling
salesman for the firm of Morton & Co., manufacturers of stoneware, remaining with
that firm and their Buccessors fur 15 years, when he and a Mr. Belding bought out the
business and entered into partnership, under the firm name of Welding & Belding.
Messrs. Welding & Belding carried on the business of stoneware manufacturing for
five years, when the factory was burned, and a dissolution of partnership followed, Mr.
Welding retiring from the busmess. A few months latf^r on he repurchased the old
pottery site, and rebuilt the factory in the spring of 1873, and hus since carried it on
alone, and with more than ordinary success, until the '* Brantford Stoneware Works,''
by which the factory is now known, holds the proud distinction of standing at the
head of the list in this department of industry in the Dominion of Canada. The
pottery building was originally constructed of wood, but is now substantially built of
brick, having all the modern improvements suggested by years of ex[)erience and obser-
vation in the business. Mr. Welding was married 28th September, 1847, to Mary
Jane Hawley, a pupil of his first school in Canada, daughter of Abram and Jane
Barton Hawley, who emigrated to Canada from the State of New York, and settled
near Cains ville in the year 1810. Mr. and Mrs. Welding's religious proclivities were
of the Methodistic order, and they early became allied to the Wellington Street Method-
ist Church, under whose auspices they worshipped until sboi^tly after the breaking
544 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
out of the American Eebellion in 1861, when they withdrew and cast in their lot with
the Congregational Church, under the pastorate of the Rev. John Wood, now of Ottawa.
Mr. Wood being called by the Missionary Board of the Congregational Union to a new
field of labour, and accepting the call, resigned in September, 1874, a pastorate he had
held over 21 years. Mr. Welding had for seven years held in this church the official
positions of Financial Secretary and Pew Steward, was a member of the Building
Committee, and latterly a member of the Deaconate, and realizing his responsibility, was
always prompt in the discharge of his duty. Circumstances which occurred immediately
subsequent to Mr. Wood's removal, appeared to justify the withdrawal of Mr. and Mrs.
Welding from the church in which they ha^l laboured for many years, but which had
now ceased to be a spiritual home to them ; and in August, 1875, Mr. Welding threw
off the mantle of official responsibility which he held, and withdrew from the church.
In October following he, with 25 other disaffected members of the old church, invited
a council of ministers of the Congregational Union to consider their application to
*' organize a second Congregational Church.'* The council convened in the parlor of
Wycliffe Hall, the '* Young Men's Christian Association Building," and after due
deliberation organized these brethren, under the authority of the Congregational Union,
for regular church work, the society taking the name " Emmanuel Congregational
Church." The church on application was duly admitted to membership of the Union,
called a pastor, purchased church property, and carried on the work of the church
nearly five years, increasing its membership from 25 to 92 active members, when, in
1 879, their pastor. Be v. A. Vancamp, suddenly, and without any previous notice or
intimation, or any subsequent explanation, resigned his pastorate and left the country.
A few months later on the church closed its work, sold its property, surrendered its
authority to the. Union which gave it, disbanded, and its members sought a spiritual
home in different churches in the city, Mr. and Mrs. Welding finding a home in Zion
' Presbyterian Church, of which they are now members, under the pastorate of the Rev.
Wm. Cochrane, D.D. Mr. Welding's early training politically was in the schools of
the Democratic party, in whose interest he was characterized by zealous devotion to
its principles. Removing to Canada, and being beyond the influence of political strife
and party animosities, he had time and inclination to consider the various party
developments growing out of the issues of the American Rebellion, and was not long
in discovering the utter demoralization of the Democratic party in its efforts to wrest
the reins of Government from the Republican party by making common cause with
the South in her defence of slavery and the doctrine of state sovereignty ; and being
anti-slavery in principles, and strong in his sympathy for the slave, he gave his mond
support and influence to the then Crovernment in its efforts for the maintenance of the
Union and the emancipation of the slave. Here he found a congenial spirit in the
Reform party, which was outspoken in its regard and firm in its allegiance to the
Administration of Abraham Lincoln in its ntruggle for the abolition of slavery. Mr.
Welding's adhesion to Reform principles has ever been marked by consistency in his
use of the franchise, always maintaining and exercising the courage of his convictions.
Through a long business career he has commanded the respect of the community by
his unbending integrity, force of character, and unmistakable adherence to principle.
On the great questions that excite the i)olitical and religious world, he has never given
an uncertain sound, and can always be relied U|x>n in the causa of right.
H. T. WESTBROOK, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel, north side of Market
Square, Brantford, was bom in Oakland Township, Brant County, Feb. 15th, 1844,
and is a son of Abram Westbrook, who was one of the early children of this oounty,
having been bom in Oakland Hollows in 1798. He was a farmer in Oakland Town-
ship all his life, and died in October, 1874. He was married to Angeline Fairchild,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 545
of Brantford Township, and their family numbered thirteen children, seven of whom
are now living. Their mother still resides on the old homestead. The subject of our
sketch, H. T. Westbrook, was brought up on the home farm, and in early life kept
a hotel in Drumbo, twenty-two years ago, for six months, when he moved into a hotel
at Mount Pleasant) where he remained eighteen months. He next came to Brantford
and kept the Farmers' Exchange Hotel, on Dalhousie Street, for three years, at which
time (1876) he rented the Commercial Hotel, and five years later bought it out. It
is built of red brick, three stories high, with a frontage of 132 feet. In this hotel
Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook, who are far-famed for their excellent hospitality and the
comforts they extend to their guests, have met with the success that is justly merited
by good hotel-keeping. Mr. Westbrook is a member of the Grand Lodge of Masons
of Ontario, and in politics is a Conservative. He is an excellent sportsman both in
hunting and trapping, and during the six or seven years he was a member of the
Bufferin Rifles, he was always *' to the front'' in rifle matches. He was married in
October, 1863, to Esther J. Hall, a native of Oakland Township, and daughter of
Thomas Hall, a pioneer of Oakland Township, by whom he had three children —
Frederick, Jennie and Munson.
FRED. WESTBROOK, eldest son of H. T. Westbrook, is the champion bicyclist
of Canada. He was bom August 2nd, 1864, in Oakland Township, and resides in
Brantford. In 1882 he won, in bicycle riding, eleven gold medals, one revolver, two
silver cups and one clock. One medal was for the five-mile championship of Canada,
one for the two-mile championship of Canada, and one medal for the championship
over all Canada. Ten of these are first prizes and one a second prize. The clock was
gained in fancy riding and the two cups for fast riding.
JAMES WEYMS, Police Magistrate, and an old pioneer resident of Brantford.
He was bom in Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland, May 16th, 1815, and is a son of
Thomaa Weyms and Anne Whaley, the former of whom died in the old country in
1827 ; his mother and five children, four boys and a girl, came to Canada, locating at
Kingston, where she died the following September. When our subject was twenty-one
, years of age he parted with his bro'^her, who was City Surveyor, and came west to
Toronto, which was a smaller place than Kingston at that time, and taking a boat there
to Hamilton, arrived in Brantford, August 30th, 1836. He once tossed a penny to see
whether he would go to London or remain in Brantford, and it decided his remaining
in this place. He had only one dollar and fifty cents on his arrival hero. He engaged
with Mr. A. Huntington, and remained. with him for some jears ; and from Mr. Hunting-
ton, who was the wealthiest man in .Brantford, he received a good business education.
Mr. Weyms then entered into the sale and manufacture of boots and shoes near the Iron
Bridge, that engaging his attention until 1856 or 1857. About 1860 he retired from
active business, and in 1858 was appointed Magistrate, and Police Magistrate in 1865,
holding that position to the present time. He was councillor for two or three years,
and also Reeve and Deputy Reeve, and subsequently Mayor for three terms. He has
been much interested in improving the city, and has built sixteen residences and one
business block on Col borne Street For twenty-two years he has been a chief of the
Six Nation Indians, and is held in high esteem by them ; they repair to him for advice
and counsel ; they have implicit confidence in his judgment When a misunderstanding
takes place between husband and wife, the woman will immediately a{)ply to his Worship,
who will send for the man, and after admonishing both, setting forth the duty the
one owes to the other, a reconciliation will take place, and the results are many happy
families on the reserve through his instrumentality. In 1860 he was called Rugy-
atondya ; by interpretation, ** The Lightning Flash." Mr. Weyms was married in 1840
to Mary 0'Neail,a native of Ireland, and seven children were born to them, three now
546 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
living ; dhe died in August, 1863. He was a>^in married in 1865 to Mary Gray, a
native of Ireland, and two children were bom of this union. Mr. and Mrs. Weyms
are members of the Wellington Street Methodist Church, oi which he is one of the
trustees.
W. T. WICKHAM, grocer and proprietor of " Crystal Hall " (crockery and ^ass-
ware), Brantford, was born at Norwich, Ontario, March 8, 1847, and is a son of
James Wickliam, a native of Bristol, England, and a carriage-maker by trade. He
(James Wickham) c:ime to Canada about the year 1830, and selected Norwich, Ontario,
for his future home, where he died in 1850. He married Eliza Trews, also a native
of Bristol, England, and by her had ei^bt children, three of whom survive, our sub-
ject beiijg the only one residing in Bi*ant County. Mrs. James Wickham is still
living in Norwich. W. T. Wickham, who was reared and educated at Norwich,
came to Brantford in 1864, and was engaged as clerk with Robert Turner for
six years, when he entered the employment of W. D. Catlin, and remained
with him two years. In 1872 he w^nt into the grocery business on his own
account, at 17 George Street, Brantford, and has continued in it, with marked
success, ever since. About October, 1882, Mr. Wickham opened up "Crystal Hall "
— crockery and glassware — and has, by energy and hard work, built up a good trade.
He employs about six men as assistants. In September, 1871, he married Emily
Harris, of Caledonia, Ontario, who died in February, 1875, and by her has one child —
Hef.ry. He again married, in April, 1877, the lady of his choice being Florence
Ronner, a native of Hartford, Ontario. Their family consists of two daughters — Grace
E. and Ethel M. Mr. Wickham is a member of Gore Lodge, No. 34, I.O.O.F. ; is a
Reformer in politics, and a member of the First Baptist Church.
ALFRED J. WILKES, of thetirmof Hardy, Wilkes & Jones, barristers, Brant-
ford, was born in the City of Brantford, December 15, 1847, and is a son of James
Wilkes, one of the oldest and most prominent pioneers of Brant County and Brant-
ford. He was educated principally in L>rantford, and when sixteen years of age com-
menced studying law with Daniel Brooke, remaining with him four years, and then
went to Toronto and completed his studies with the Hon. S. U. Blake, with whom he
was about one year. Mr. Wilkes then returned to Brantford, and the following three
years was in piirtnership with Mr. Brooke, the finn being Brooke & Wilkes. Subse-
quently he practised one year alone, and in 1873 became a partner of Hon. Arthur
S. Hardy, and has been in constant practice altogether for fourteen rean, being
admitted to the courts in February, 1869, upon reaching his majority. He is Master of
Doric Lodge, No. 121, A. F. & A. M., and is now Chairman of the Board of Public School
Trustees for a second term, and has been a member of it for the past seven years.
He was Captain of No. 3 Company, Duiferin Rifles, for seven years ; and he ia an
adheient of the Congregational Church.
GEORGE H. WILKES, retired manufacturer, Brantford, was bom in that city
June 8, 1836, and is son of James Wilkes. He is owner of the greater part of the
*' Wilkes tract," which was almost entirely purchased by him, none having bf*en in-
herited. Mr. Wilkes was brought up in Brantford, but received his education at the
Caradoc Academy. When he left school in 1850, he was engaged in the capacity of
clerk by John Brethour, and remained with him nearly two years. Next he was clerk
of a steamboat plying between Brantford and Butlalo, via Grand River Canal and Lake
Erie ; he was forwarding clerk one season ; then clerk of a steamboat next season, ply-
ing between Montreal and Hamilton. In the following spring he^attended the Ameri-
can College at Buffalo, and went through his course in ten weeks, which was followed
by an appointment as book-keeper for a wholesale house for groceries in Buffalo, which
position he held till the iirm collapsed. He then returned to Brantford, and was book-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 547
keeper for G. S. Wilkes, of the firm of Tafb & Co., iron founders. This firm failed and
became C. R. Wilkes, which house also failed after constiucting a cast-iron bridge over
the Grand River. Their place of business was the present site of Wm. Buck's foundry.
Mr. Wilkes then taught a class in book-keeping for some little time. At this period
the Sheriff and others interested in the estate of H. N. Taft & Co. in treated Mr. Wilkes
to take hold of the old foundry; this he did about the year 1859 or 1860, and for two
or three years kept forty men employed, until the old firm of Ganson, Waterous &
Co., made overtures to him to accept a third interest in their business. Before accept-
ing four years elapsed, when he accepted the overture, with a third interest, and the
firm l)ecame known as C. H. Waterous <& Co. At the end of thiee years he had a
half interest In April, 1874, the firm of C. U. Waterous & Co. merged into the
Waterous Engine Works Co., and Mr. Wilkes became Secretary-Treasurer, which posi-
tion he held from 1874 till 1879, and from then till 1880 he was Vice-President. He
then retired from the firm, still holding large interest. While in the firm, and when
he sold out, he was the largest stockholder. Mr. Wilkes was also PresidenI of the
Norfolk Railway when the first sod was turned by Loid Dufferin. He has beek con-
nected with the County Council twenty years, aod with the City Council eight years ;
is a member of Grace (Episcopal) Church, and in politics a Reformer. He is a mem-
ber also of Doric (Masonic) Lodge, and the Brantford Golf Club. Mr. Wilkes was
married in February, 1865, to Ellen M. Bemis, of Buffalo, by whom he had one daugh-
ter, now living. His wife died in Dec, 1866. He mairied a second time, June 10,
1873, the partner of his choice being Isabella B. Fisken, and to this union have been
born five children (four living), Kate S., Greoi^e 8., Edna Isabel, Helen Louise, and
Jessie Fisken. Mrs. Wilkes is also a member of Grace (Episcopal) Church. Mr.
Wilkes is the oldest native resident inhabitant of'Branttbrd. He was bom in a house
on Col borne Street, below the Kerby House.
JAMES WILKES, Treasurer of the City of Brantford, was born in Birmingham,
England, December 27, 1808, and is a son of the late John Aston Wilkes, also a
native of England, where he was born February 25, 1782. He came to Canada in
1820, and settled in '' Little York," now Toronto, where he was engaged in business as
a merchant, and resided till the year 1826. James Wilkes (our subject) came to
" Grand River Ferry," now Brantford, with John] A. Wilkes, Senr., an elder brother,
in 1823, and opened a branch store of their father's business. This store was situated
on the bluff of the hill on Colborne Sti eet, near the spot where William Paterson's
confectionery establishment now stands. After a time it was movM to the south side
of Colborne Street, about opposite where B. G. Tisdale's stove store is at present. Soon
afterwards their father built a store where H. W. Biethour & Co. are, in which he Hud
his sons, John A., Junr., and James, carried on business for some \ears. These were
frame buildings, and were destroyed during the Rebellion of 1837. Mr. Wilkes, Senr.,
then built the present store, and the business was carried on under the name of John
A. Wilkes & Son (John A., Junr., being deceased) ; but he finally retired in favour of
his sons James and George S., under the firm of Wilkes Bros., and some years
after went to Montreal to live with a daughter, and there he died April 16, 1867, aged
85 years. He was married in Birmingham to Susan Phillips, and their family numbered
13 children, some having died in infancy. Of those surviving are : Rev. Dr. Wilkes,
of Montreal ; James, in Brantford ; Susan, wife of the late William Walker, of Mont-
real ; William A., of Buffalo ; George S., of New York City ; Charles R., at Owen
Sound, Ont. The latter two w^re born in ** Little York." Their mother was bom
October 23, 1782 ; died January 11, 1858, aged 75 years, and the others in Birming-
ham, England. Mr. Wilkes, of whom we write, has been engaged in the insurance
business for almost 20 years with great encouragement. In March, 1871, he was
548 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
appointed by the Town Council of Brmntford to the podtion he now Kdda. Mr.
Wilkes is a Deacon in the Congregational Church, and in politics a liberaL He was
married May 18, 1835, to Eliza Elliot, from the neighbourhood of London, England,
by whom he had a family of six children, four surviFinj; — George H., with Wateioos
Engine Works Co. ; James C, residing at Mount Forest, Ont ; Annie ; and Alfred J. ;
the latter with Hardy, Wilkes & Jones, Brantford. Mrs. Wilkes died March 12,
1848, aged 32 years, 8 months, 12 days. Mr. Wilkes again married, in 1848, the
partner of his choice being Agnes Hook, a native of Scotland, to which union there
was one child bom who survived infancy — Agnes S. M., wife of W. A. McLean Tde-
ceased), of Walkertown, Ont This second wife of Mr. WUkes died January 8, 1852,
aged 27 yeara, 8 months, 14 days. On December 28, 1852, Mr. WUkes took for his
third wife Matilda Carroll, a native of Canada. The two surviving children by tins
union are Clara M and Walter A., barrister in the 6rm of Eoss, Killam ft Higgart
Winuip^. Mr.Wilke8'brother,J.A.,Junr., died in 1837. Mr. Wilkes is now the oldest
resident of Brantford. He holds the position of Lieut -Colonel in the 2nd Brant Re-
serve Militia, under commission of June 10, 1856, and served actively as Captain in the
Brantford Light Infantry near the close of the Rebellion in 1838-9 for a period of six
months. He was a member of the first Council of the Town (now City) of Brantford,
and held the position of Chairman of the Brantford School Board for a number of
years. In 1828, at the organization of the present Congregational Church Sunday
school, he was librarian, and has been ever since — a period of fifty-five years.
HUGH McKENZIE WILSON, barrister, Brantford, was bom in Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, April 9, 1840, and is a son of Stephen Wilson, a native of Banfishire, Scot-
land, but now a resident of Burford Township, at Bishopegate. Stephen Wilson
married Miss Ann E Melvin, a native of Abeideenshire, Scotland, by whom be has
had six sons and one daughter, all living ; their mother is also livii^. Mr. Hugh
McKemde Wilson was but seven years of age when he came to Canada. He received
bis education chiefly at the Grammar ScAool in Hamilton, of which Mr. George Elmsley
was at that time Principal, and Dr. Tassie assistant. He subsequently received
private instruction, the Rev. John Alexander, the Rev. Mr. Stott, and the Rev. Mr.
Fenn being his tutors at different periods. He commenced the study of law in his
present office with the late John Cameron, brother of the Hon. Mr. Justice
Cameron, and was admitted an attorney five years later, and called to the Bar in 1866.
After his admission as an attorney, he formed a partnership with the late Mr.
Cameron, which coniinued until shortly before Mr. Cameron's death. In September,
1875, he formed a partnership with Mr. Robert Charles Smyth, and the firm enjoys
one of the most remunerative practices in Brant County. In 1881 Mr. Geoige H. Muir-
head became a member of the firm, the present name being Wilson, Smyth & M air-
head. Mr. Wilson is a member of Brant Lodge, No. 45, of the Order of Andent
Free and Accepted Masons. He was Master of this lodge for three consecutive yean.
During the latter part of this period he was District Deputy Grand Master of the Wilson
District, and declined re-election on account of pressure of professional buAnesaL He
is also a Royal Arch Mason, and in politics is a Conservative. He baa officiated as
Deputy Judge of this county, having been first appointed to that office in 1872 by
the Dominion Government, during a six months' leave bom office of Judge JoneSi
and was again appointed for the third time, and held office nntil September 1, 1882,
when ail the mmmisinftnn of Deputy Judges throughout the Province were leroked.
In 1874 and 1875 he was appointed Master in Chancery during the illness of the late
Jehn Cameron, serving until the appointment of the present incumbent, Judge Jones.
In 1875 he was appc^nted Clerk of the Coun^ of Brant, and his firm are also Gountf
SolicitorsL Mr. Wilson was a candidate in South Biant during liie election ibr member
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 549
of the Local Legislature in 1879, opposini; the present member — the Hon. Arthur S.
Hardy. He was married on May 5, 1872, to Miss Mary Selina Nelles, a native of
Brantford Township, and second daughter of A. H. Nelles, now of Brantford City.
They have three children. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and family attend the services of
Grace (Episcopal) Church.
DR. WILLIAM EDWIN WINSKEL, Brantford, was bom in the Township of
Windham, >*orfolk County, Ontario, June 22nd, 1853, and is a son of John Winskei,
a native of Westmoreland, England, and a farmer by occupation. He came to Canada
about the year 1832, settling in Toronto, and subsequently in Norfolk County seven
years later. He died there March 7th, 1879. He married Eebecca Bums, a native of
Ireland, who came to Canada when five years of age. They were the parents of
two children, son and daughter, the subject of our sketch being the eldest. The
mother is living and resides with her son. The Doctor was brought up in his native
county, attending school in the section to which he belonged until, when seventeen
years of age, he went to Scotland High School for two and a half years. He then
attended Trinity Medical College, Toronto, for three terms, having spent one year
previously with a country practitioner. He graduated from that college in 1877, also
from Toronto University, and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. He has
also spent two years in England in attending the London Hospitals, and took a degree
from the Royal College of iSui^eons, London. Ketuming to Canada in 1879, he came
to Brantford on October 28th, same year, where he has since practised his profession
with good success. He is a member of Doric Lodge, No. 121 (Masonic), is Secretary
and Tieasurer of the Brant County Medical Association, and Assistant-Surgeon to the
Dufiferin Rifles. He is also a member of the Provincial Medical Association. The
Doctor is a Trustee of Oxford Street Methodist Church, and a member of Wellington
Street Methodist Church. *
JESSE O. WISNER, of J. O. Wisner, Son & Co., manufacturers of agricultural
implements, Brantford, was bom near Newburg, Orange County, N.Y., March 24th,
1811, and is a son of Moses Wisner, a native of New York, of German parentage.
He was a farmer and resided in New York State, and died in Monroe County. He
married Dollie Howell, a native of New York, of English descent, who died in Roch-
ester, N.Y. They were the parents of twelve children, five living : Jesse O. and four
sisters. Jesse O. came to Huron, Wayne Co., N. Y., when six years of age, and after
being educated engaged in failning, remaining at that occupation until he was forty-
five years of age, when he assumed the charge of Wayne County Poor House for six
years. He then engaged in the livery business for two years, and in 1857 came to
Canada, and engaged in the manufacture of fanning mills at Brantford. Since 1857
his business has steadily increased, until now it is one of the largest establishments of
the kind in the County of Brant. Mr. Wisner and Son, W. S. Wisner, and Mr.
Edward Goold, are now associated together in the business. He has been a member
of the Reform party, and has never asked for, accepted, or held office. For the first
fifteen or twenty years of his residence here he travelled for his house. He was mar-
ried March 23rd, 1835, to Margaret Sheldon, a native of New York State, by whom
he had four children, three yet living. She died in New York in 1855. He was again
married August 25th, 1856, to Frances A. Wells, of Lyons, N.Y., and they are the
parents of four childreh, of whom three are living, the youngest being over seventeen
years of age. Mr. Wisner, wife, and family, are all members of the Congregational
Church.
JAMES WOODY ATT, Clerk of the City of Brantford, was bom in Putney, in
Surrey, now part of London, England, June 20th, 1819, and is a son of Thomas
Woodyatt, a native of Hertfordshire, England. The latter, who was a tailor by occu-
550 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
pation, came to America in 1834, and remained in Cattaraugus County until 1835,
when he came to Brantford. Here he was engaged at his trade until his death, which
occurred April 16th, 1842. He was married to Miss Harriet Gumbleton, a native of
London, England, by whom he had two son^ William B., the youngest, resided in
Brantford, where he was a business niau for many years, and died in October, 1881.
Their mother died in 1822. Mr. James Woody att, the subject of our sketch, at the
age of ten years began to learn the trade of a. tailor with his father. He followed that
occupation until 1842, having gone into business for himself in 1839. In 1842, on
account of ill health, he was advised by his physicians to take a sea voyage, and accord-
ingly went on a whaling expedition for two years, after which he passed the following
two years in boating on the Grand Kiver. In 1846 he resumed business as a merchant
tailor until 1856, when he engaged in the pottery business, with John Russell for a
partnei. Mr. Kussell left the partnership in about a year, and Mr, Woodyatt continued
the enterprise until 1859, when he closed out, and in February of that ye»T was
appointed to his present position by the City Council. He is a member of Gore Lodge,
No. 34, I.O.O.F., of Brant Encampment, No. 4, and of the Grand Lodge of Ontario,
which lodnre he has represented eight terms in the Sovereign Grand Lod'^e of that
Society. He is also a member of the Congregational Church, and a Trustee and Deacon
of that body. He is a Reformer in politics, has been a County Councillor for the
County of Brant, and from 1850 to 1853 inclusive represented one of the wards in. the
City Countil. He was member of the School Board for four or five yed.rs, and always
takes a deep interest in educational, religions, and municipal affairs. Mr. Woodyatt
wds married June 22nd, 1844, to Martha Woods, a native of the North of Ireland, by
whom he has had six children.
JOHN WORKMAN, of Workman & Watt, manufacturers of brick, Brantford, was
bom in the house now occupied as the brick-yard office, December 1, 1844. His father,
Hugh Workman, a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, was the only one of his family who
came to America, having emigrated to the United States, settling first at Mr. Hope,
near Rochester, and some time afterwards worked on the Wei land Canal. He then
went to Hamilton, Ontario, and afterward came to Brantford and obtained employment
with Calvin Houghton, with whom he worked for three years ; he then bought the
brick-yard of Mr. Houghton, and operated it till the day of his death. He died April
3rd, 1879, aged sixty yeais. He was the pioneer brickmaker in the County of Brant,
and had the largest yard. In its primitive days the clay was trod out by oxen and
moulded by hand, and now, with modem appliances, the yard yields a turnout of
2,500,000 bricks per annum. Mr. Hugh Workman was one of the first members of
the Presbyterian Church, and one of the pioneer members of St Andrew's Society.
He married Elizabeth Turner, a native of Bytown (Ottawa) but of Scotch ancestry,
and they were the parents of seven children, ^ve of whom survive, three living in
Brant County. Their mother has a handsome residence on East Colborne Street, near
the yard. John, the subject of this sketch, was reared in Brantford, and in early life
assisted his father in his business, a business he has been engaged in all his life. A
year after bis father's death (in February, 1860), he and James F. Watt took the brick-
yard, and have been very successful in operating it. Mr. Workman attends the services
of Zion Presbyterian Church, and in politicals a Reformer. He was married on April
25th, 1871, to Jennie Burton, a native of Burford, who died in September, 1882.
To this union there was one child — Ethel Mav. Mr. Workman now resides with his
mother.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 551
BRANTFORD TOWNSHIP.
THOMAS ADAMS, farmer, Cainsville. The father of our subject was John
Adam?, who was bom in England in 1757, and died in 1852. He was a farmer
through life, and accumulated a comfortable competency. He lived single until in the
meridian of life, when he married Sophia Pressgraves, of English birth ; she died after
a union of a few years, of consumption, leaving five children. She and her husband
were members of the Methodist Church. Of the five children, one lives in London,
England; three in the United States; and Thomas, of whom we now write, is the only
one living in Canada, where he came in 1847. He was bom in England in 1832.
Five years after reaching Canada he married Elizabeth Kingdon, of Brant County but
a native of England. To this union ten children have been given, viz.: Mary A.,
John T., Joseph H., William J., Charles A., Walter R. (deceased), George E., Wesley
M., Emma E. and Arthur F. \Vhen Mr. Adams came to Canada he had no money,
and started empty-handed, but industry and economy have placed him among the
well-to-do citizens of the county, and he now owns a home of 73 acres. He has served
three years as School Trustee, and is deeply interested in the education of his children.
He and wife are members of the Methodist Church.
WALTER ALLAN, farmer, Cainsville P. O., is a son of William and Jane Allan,
both natives of Scotland, where they were married in 1819 ; ten years later they
came to Canada, settling in the Province of Quebec, but after a stay of nine years
pressed on to the Township of Onondaga, Brant County, Ont., where they both died —
she, July 3, 1872, and he, August 10, 1878. They had for many years been members
of the Presbyterian Church. Of their nine children seven are now living. Walter is
the seventh of the family, and was bom in the Province of Quebec, February 8, 1833,
but from the age of five years has been in Brant County, and now omus a good farm
of 50 acres in Brantford Township, which he cultivates. He has thus far in life, as well
as his father before him, been a tiller of the soil. He takes special pains in raising
good horses, and is one of the well-to-do citizens In 1871 he married Elizabeth Knox,
who is, with him, a member of the Presbyterian Church. Their children are Jane
C. C, William, Isabelle M., Mary, John K., and Adam M. Mrs. Allan was bom in
Oneida in 1852.
MORRIS ANDERS, farmer, P>rantford P.O., was born in the SUte of New Jersey
January 11th, 1819, and is a son of William and Priscilla (Vansickle) Anders, of
Oerman descent. Mr. Anders died in New Jersey in 1825, leaving a wife and six
children, viz. : Margaret, Jacob and Elsie (twins), Morris, Sarah and Manda. Mrs.
Anders came to Canada with three children in 1836, settling in Jersey ville, where
she died in 1865. Morris Anders came to Canada in 1837, and since 1866 has made
Brant County his home. He has been three times married : his first wife was Miss Sophia
Howell ; his second, Martha Misner ; and the third, whom he married in October, 1873,
was Mary A. Steele, of Brantford. Mr. Anders owns 100 acres of good land, and
makes a specialty of stock-raising.
MARK ARMSTRONG, deceased. This gentleman was a brother to Thomas Arm-
strong;^, whose sketch appears in this work. . Mark was bom in the north of England
in 1832, but when ten years of age his parents moved to the County of Brant, Ontario,
where he reached maturity. From 1852 to 1856 he, with his brother Thomas, was in
Australia digging gold, but since the last date mentioned, he was a resident and land-
owner of seventy-seven acres in Lot 19, first concession, in the Township of Brant-
ford, until his death. Here he devoted his time to its cultivation. His wife, Sarah,
daughter of James Hanson, of Westmoreland. England, was born in 1836, and they
were married in Melbourne, Australia, in 1856. They have had nine children, of
552 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
whom eight daughters still survive. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong belonged to the Baptist
Church. Mr. Armstrong died on Monday, the 12th of March, 1883, of pneamonia,
after a short illness. Ue was scarcely past the prime of life, having but recently entered
upon his fifty -second year.
THOMAS ARMSTRONG, farmer, Paris P.O., is a grandson of Thomas Arm-
strong, who was of Scotch parentage, and was bom near Carlisle. He was raised and
spent almost his entire life in the north of England. His occupation was farmiag.
Of his ten children, Mark, the father of our subject, was the youngest, and was bom on
St. Mark's Day, in April, 1799. He matured to farm life, but after his marriage,
engaged in mining, which he followed until 1842, when he, his wife and eight children,
started for Canada ; while on the vessel one child died and seven reached the new
home in the Township of Nelson, Ontario. In September of the same year he came
to Paris, where he became the counsellor of Coleman, Curtis <& Capron, owners of the
plaster beds, as to the best method of procuring the materia). They had previously been
unearthing it, but his knowledge of mining enabled him to mine it out, whidi was
very satisfactory to the proprietors. In 1847 he' bought land in South Dumfries, but
finally he settled near Mount Pleasant, where he died January 13, 1883. On coming
to Canada he endured many privations and hardships in clearing up his two ^urms^
although he was a stout hearty man. He buried his wife in 1865 ; she left a family of
seven children, six of whom are now living. Thomas is the second eldest son, and was
bom in the north of England in 1827, but since the a^e of fifteen years he has
resided in the County of Brant, near Paris, where he now owns a good farm of 1 70
acres, which he cultivates. He married Margaret, daughter of Richard Sanderson ;
she was bom in the County of Brant, and is now the mother of eight children, seven
of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong both belong to the C. M. Church.
Mr. Armstrong spent from 1852 to 1886 in Australia digging gold, with favourable
results.
WILLIAM ATKINSON, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Wpstmoreland-
shire, England, was bom October 4th, 1835, and came to Canada in 1846, and located
in Brant County. He was a son of Thomas and grandson of Edmund Atkinson, the
former of whom settled in this county about 1846, where he died in 1854. Thomas
married Eleanor Whitehead, and had eleven children, of whom George, Thomas,
William and Robert are living ; and Maria, Margaret, Mary Anne, Edmund, Isabella,
Eleanor and Richard are dead. William, of whom this biography is written, married
June 8th, 1858, Sarah Bellhouse, daughter of John Bellhouse, granddaughter of
Thomas Rycroft, who came to this country in May, 1840, and established himself in
the county. Their marriage resulted in nine children, viz., Maigaret Ann, born April
12th, 1860 ; Sarah E., bom Aug. 25th, 1861 ; William H., bom Dec 23rd, 1864 ;
Charles E., bom Sept. 29th, 1866; Nellie, bom Sept. 17th, 1868; Hannah, bom
Dec. 6th, 1870 ; Grace, bom Feb. 13th, 1873 ; John T., bom June Ist, 1875 ; Maud
M., bom Feb. 19th, 1877. The family are members of the Church of England. Mr.
Atkinson owns a farm of 62 acres of excellent land, six miles south of the City of
Brantford, and is comfortable and well-to-do.
M. D. BALDWIN is of English extraction, and a native of the State of New-
York, where he was raised to farm life. He came to Brant County in 1843, at the
age of 22 years, and settled on his present farm, where he engaged in hop-growing
quite extensively for about 37 years. Subsequently he engaged in sweet com grow-
ing and drying, and in 1880 in his present business, which is mentipned in the manu-
&cturing chapter of this work. Mr. Baldwin has been very successful through life,
and now owns a fine lot of land of about 220 acres. His family consists of a wife and
four daughters. Mrs. Baldwin is Mary A., daughter of Benjamin Hopkins, who
was born near St. Catharines, and she near the same place.
.^
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 553
HERBERT BIGGAR, one of the oldest and 'most honoured settlers of Brantford
Township and Brant County, was bom in Queenstou, Ont., Jan. 6, 1809, and is a son
of Robert Biggar, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. He was but seven
years of age when his father located on the farm now owned by the former, and being
reared to farming pursuits, he early assisted his father. At the age of thirty years he
went to Brantford, and engaged with his brother Hamilton in mercantile business. He
then moved back to the farm, and drove the first team that ever crossed the bridge over
the Grand River at Brantford. He purchased a farm on Whiteman's Creek, Brant
County ; but six months later, in 1838, on the event of his father's death, he came to
the home-farm, and has since resided there. This farm consists of 114 acres on first
range. Lot 10, Brantford Township. Mr. Biggar, who is a Reformer in politics, repre-
sented South Brant tor seven years, between 1850 knd 1860, in the Upper Canadian
Parliament. He has been a member of the Township and County Councils, as well as
Reeve of Brantford Township. He is a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church,
and has beeti Trustee and class-leader of the Church in Mount Pleasant, and is a life
member of the Oddfellows fraternity. Mr. Biggar was married in April, 1831, to Jane
Ellis, a native of Mt. Pleasant, and to this union seven children were born, four living
— Mary, widow of Archibald McCallum, of Hamilton; Hannah, wife of Rev. Mr. Gritfin,
of Guelph; Herbert, on farm adjoining that of his father ; and Sarah. Mr. Biggar's first
wife died about the year 1868 or 1869, and he again married in 1874, his second wife
being a Mrs. Marion Long, of Brantford, who died Dec. 15, 1882. His first wife was an
adherent of the Methodist body, and his second originally attended Zion Presbyterian
Church, but on her marriage with Mr. Biggar joined the Methodist Church,
WILLIAM BIGGAR, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom Feb. 23, 1827, and
is a son of James and grandson of Robert L. Biggar, a native of Scotland, who came
to Canada and settled in this county toward the close of the last century. He died
here. James Biggar, his son, was bom in the county in 1803, and married (1825) a
lady of his own name, Jane Biggar, daughter of William Biggar, a native of Scotland.
Their family was seven in number, viz.: William, Robert L., Charles, Mary, Eliza,
Jane (deceased), and Nancy. He died in August, 1879. William Biggar, of whom
this biography is written, married Jan. 3, 1854, Mary Jane Clement. She was a
daughter of John Clement,' a native of Ireland, who came to the Province early in
the present century and settled in Brantford Township, where he died at the ripe age
of 95 years. Their marriage resulted in four children, as follows : Sarah Eliza-
beth, bom Feb. 12th, 1856, died May 8, 1861 j Eliza Jane, bom July 30, 1860, died
June 24, 1868; James, bom May 28, 1864 ; William, bom April 18, 1866. Mr.
Biggar is one of the leading men of the township, having for a period of six years been
a member of the Township and County Councils. He is a successful farmer^ owning
a well stocked farm of 200 acres near Mohawk P.O., and another fine farm containing
175 acres in the Township of BurfonL His family has always stood foremost in the
ranks of pioneer settlers in Brant County. He is a member of the Canada Methodist
Gharch.
THOMAS BIRKETT, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of William Birkett, who
was bom near London, England, in 1793. He grew up to form life, but afterwards
learned weaving fancy goods, which he followed a number of years. He married
Eleanor Bateraan, of English birth, and about 1835, with six children, came to Canada,
settling below Toronto ; but two years later they came to the County of Brant, where
he died in 1874 ; his widow survived him until 1879. On reaching Canada he had
no means, but he soon engaged in farming, and thereby accumulated a neat competency.
He and wife had a famUy of thirteen children, nine of whom are now living. Of
these'' Thomas is the fifth, and was bom in England in 1828. He now owns a fine
33
554 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
farm of 116 acres in the Eagle's Nest, in Brant County. He spent from 1847 to 1855
in Illinois, but returned to Canada, where he married Lucy Hickox, a native of Prinoe
Edward Island, who was bom in 1836, but since 1843 has lived in the County of
Brant. Thomas and wife have six children, viz., Theodore L., John W., Frank B.,
Bobert B., Annie M. and Nellie B. Mr. and Mrs. Birkett are members of the
Baptist Church.
ELEM BON HAM, retired farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom near Hamilton, in
1819. His father, Jeriah Bonham, was bom in Pennsylvania, and now, at the age of
ninety-five years, lives with his son Elem in this county. He came to Canada before
the War of 1812, and served through that war, beingvnow one of the old pensioners.
His wife was Mary White, who died in Canada in 1848, leaving Elem and Amelia,
who is now the wife of Rev. Wm. Willoughby. In 1823. Jeriah and family came to
Canada, settling near St. George, where he cleared his farm from a dense forest. Elem
Bonham since a boy of three yeais has watched the growth of this section from
a bush to its present well developed condition. He married Elizabeth Bausslaughy of
German descent. Mr. Bonham, soon after marriage, settled near Brantford, where he
has since lived, and where he now owns 115 acres and a lot of 12 acres. Mr. Bonham
belongs to the Methodist Church, and is the father of six children, viz.: David and
Dinah, deceased ; Harriet, Peter, Mary and Jeriah.
HENRY BOOK, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of George and a grandson of John
Book. The latter was born in Germany, but died July 2nd, 1827 (aged 73 years), in
Wentworth County, Canada, where he had settled in 1788, having come from his
native country to York State two years prior to coming to Canada. He was married
about 1777, bringing with him a family from Germany. His wife. Charity, died in
Wentworth County, December 14th, 1822, aged 77 years ; she was the mother of ten
children, viz.: George, Mary and Catharine (twins), Ann, Henry, Adam. Phoebe, John,
Margaret and Christina. All were raised and part born in Wentworth County, bat
now all are deceased, though some of their posterity are now living in different parts
of Canada. Of the entire family it is seen that George, the father of our subject, is the
eldest ; he was born in Germany in 1778, and died in Wentworth County, Ontario,
August 31st, 1857. From eleven years old he endured thot hardships of a pioneer life
in the county where he died. His entire life was devoted to fanning, and in the War
of 1812, as orderly sergeant of the Volunteer Flank Company, in which he was the
second man to enlist, he participated in the battles of Lundy's Lane and at Queens-
ton Heights, where General Brock was killed. He was a man of five feet eleven and a
half inches, and weighed 240 pounds, good health and strong constitution. About 1806
he married Maiy A. Misner, a native of New York State, who came to Canada at an early
day ; she died in 1848. They both worked hard, and accumulated a neat competency.
Their family of thirteen children were. Charity, John, Mary, George, Barbara, Lyd^
Margaret, Adam, Peter, Henry, Eliiabeth A., William and Catharine. Of this number
six are now living. Henry is the tenth of the family, and was bom in Wentworth
County October 20th9 1823. He was raised to farm life, and has thus far followed it
for a livelihood, but nine years in Oxford County. In 1863 be came to Brant, and <me
year later bought his present farm. It was in an unimproved condition, but by his
own efforts it is now second to no farm in the vicinity, which he cultivates scientifically,
ornamented with a neat brick house of his own planning. In 1850 he married Nancy,
daughter of John Oles; she died August 16th, 1866, leaving six children, viz.: Millioent,
Mary J., Margaret A., Marvel, Emervilla and Emei-son. Mr. Book's second wife was
Anna Smith, daughter of Allen Walker, a native of Michigan.
GEORGE BRAZIER, farmer, Brantford Township, is a native of England ; was
bom Aug. 6th, 1818, came to Canada in 1836, and settled in this county. He was
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 555
a son of John Brazier, born in West Kent, England, Aug. 6th, 1777, who married,
1816, Harriet Branchley, daughter of Henry firanchley Their children were : Friend,
bom June 9th, 1817 ; George, bom August 6th, 1818 ; Emily, bom July 19th, 1819,
died April 29th, 1850 ; William, bom June 27th, 1822 ; John H, bom Dec. Uth,
1824 ; Jesse, bom May 1.7th, 1827 (deceased) ; Edwin, bom May 17th, 1830; James,
bom Dec 2nd, 1834. The mother died Oct. 17th, 1853, and the father June 28th,
1855. Greorge Brazier married, March 4th, 1837, Mary Bye, daughter of James
Bye. She dying, he married a second time, Mary Ferris, daughter of James and
^granddaughter of James Ferris, natives of -England. They have two children — George,
bom Nov. 5th, 1880, and Wallace, bom Sept. 10th, 1882. The subject of this sketch
received only a common school education, and started out in life with the meagre
pittance of $10, but his energy and frugality have been rewarded by the possession of
a fino farm of 100 acres, situated about five miles from the city.
RICHARD BROOKS, retired farmer, and one of the representative pioneer resi-
dents of Brantford Township, was bom in Berkshire, England, August 14, 1805. His
father, Thomas Brooks, waa a native of Oxfordshire, England, and a gardener by
occupation. He attended market in Berkshire, and lived there till his death, which
occurred about fifteen or twenty years ago. He married Rachel Beachey, also a
native of Oxfordshire, and their family consisted of three sons, two of whom are still
living. Mrs. Brooks died about ten years after her husband's death. The eldest son
living is about eighty-three years of age and has never known a day's sickness. The
youngest of the three sons, and the subject of this notice, became a slater and plas-
terer in early life. He came to Canada in 1832 (th^ first year of the cholera epidemic),
and located at Brantford, where he worked at his two trades for about three years.
He then purchased eight acres of land on the Mount Pleasant Road, near Brantford,
and since tbat period has made various purchases of land, till he finally possessed a
fine farm of 200 acres. He subsequently apportioned a farm to each of his three
sons, and retired from active labouW some years since, with a competence sufiicient for
old age. He is a member of Farringdon Independent Church, and has officiated, in
his day, as elder and deacon. He was married about 1834, to Elizabeth Holden, bom
near Blackburn, England, and had a family of six children, five of whom are living —
Thomas, on a farm near his father's residence, and married to Sarah A Pickersgill ;
Rachel, wife of William Whittaker, tinsmith in Brantford ; Ann, at home with her
father; Elizabeth, wife of Edwin Bellhouse, and Richard, a resident of Manistee,
Michigan. William is deceased. Mrs. Brooks departed this life November 27, 1846
and Mr. Brooks again married, about three years later, Elizabeth Nightingale, who
came from England to Toronto, when quite young, and died July 17, 1864, leaving no
<shi]dTen.
ENSIGN BUCK, farmer, Brantford P. O., was bom in the State of New York in
1813, and is a son of Lideral and Yashta (Waterhouse) Buck, who were natives of
New York State, where Lideral Buck died in 1816. The widow, with her second hua-
band, Capt Marshal Lewis, came to Canada in 1821, settling in Brantford; here the
mother of our subject died in 1823. Ensign Buck has, since 1820, been in Brantford
County. He was left an orphan at an early a^e, but by toil and perseveriince he has
accumulated a neat competency of 140 acres uf land, after liberally providing for his
children. He h'as taken his farm from a dense wilderness and made of it a beautiful
home. He married Margaret Swartz, of Prmceton, Blenheim County. They have
the following family of children, viz. : William E., Caroline M., James, H., Margaret
M., Mary E., George S., Charles W., Edward A., Alice J., Albert W., and Minnie H. —
all living. Mr. Buck was associated with ihe building of the first bridge across Grand
River. Mr. and Mrs. Buck are members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
I
536 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
DAVID BURTCH, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of this county, was bom
Nov. 23, 1815, and is a son of Stephen and grandson of David Bortch. a native of
England, who went to the American colonies abont the middle of the last century, and
di^ at Albany, in what subsequently became the State of New York. Stephen
Burtch, his sire, was born at Balltown, New York State, in 1767, and came to Canada
in 1796, locating near Niagara until 1813, when he removed to Brant County. About
the year 1807 he married Margaret Belingar, daughter of Jacob Belingar, a native of
Germany, their union being blessed with nine children, viz., Lucy and William
(deceased), Esther, David, Adelia, Ann, Mafy (deceased), Charlotte, Susan and Jane.
After battling with the forests of Brant County for twenty years, this brave old pioneer
was gathered to his fathers in 1833, at the age of 66, leaving behind him a record of
good deeds for emulation by his posterity. David Burtch, the subject of our biography^,
was twice married. His first wife was Anna Smith, daughter of Amos Smith, a native
of New York State, to whom he was married June 20, 1835. The result of tlieir mar-
riage was six children, as follows : Daniel, bom Nov. 6, 1636; Jane, bom Sept. 17,
1838, died May 24, 1867 ; Stephen, bom Nov. 3, 1840; David, born Jan. 15, 1842;
Silas, bom July 16, 1844, died Oct. 6, 1845; Honickel, bom Nov. 23, 1847. Hia
wife dying June 1, 1856, he again married Jun 12, 1861, Nancy Ann Clarke, who is
still living. Mr. Burtch is in independent circumstances, being the owner of a splen*
did farm of 172^ acres, upon which he has resided since his birth, and 92 acres of
excellent land in the Village of Mount Pleasant, all of which is well stocked and under
a superior state of cultivation. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace for the
past few years, having leceived his appointment from the Dominion Government. He
is a member of the Baptist Church. David Burtch, Jr., his son, married Lucretia
Clark, daughter of William and Susan (Huffman) Clark, of Glanford. He resides on
the farm with his father.
JEREMIAH BUECH, farmer, Brantford P. 0.. was bom in Duchess County, N. Y.,
Oct. 31, 1827. He is a son of Jeremiah and Ellen (Simpson) Burch, and came to Canada
with his father in 1838, settling in this county at what is now called Mount Vernon. The
grandfather and grandmother of our subject were of English descent, dying in Canada ;
the latter, whose name was Jemima, at about the age of 100 years. His father, Jere-
miah Burch, was born June 22, 1791, and married EUen Simpson, of Dutch descent ;
he was in the War of 1812, and died in August, 1864. They had four children — Titus,
Elizabeth, Jerome and Jeremiah, who married Januaiy 1, 1850, Elizabeth Waterhouse,
of Welsh descent. He has a family of five children, viz.: Emma, bom March 20, 1851,
and died Sept. 29, 1871 ; Henry L., bom Nov. 10, 1852 ; Siles, bom April 3, 1855 ;
Luther, born April 23, 1858, died August 27, 1859; Barton, bom April 2, 1862.
Mr. Burch owns 170 aci*es of well improved land, located at Back Street of Mount
Pleasant, overlooking Brantford City. Ho received in early life a common school
education in New York State, and is a member of the Canada Methodist Charch.
WILLIAM BUEBILL, retired, Brantford P.O., is a son of William and grandson
of William, both natives of Lincolnshire, England. The latter was through life a
boatman, and while thus engaged he was unfortunately drowned. Williun, Senr.,
the father of our subject, was one of 14 sons, 3 of whom fought, bled and died in the
Battle of Waterloo. William last mentioned was for about half a century a shepherd
on the *' Hall Farm," which belonged to Lord Alaby. While thus engaged he was so
attentive that as a comi.eneation Lord Alaby provided a home for him in his last
da}s. His wife was Catharine Cooper, of English origin also, and both died in their
native country, having for years been members of the Church of England. Of their
twelve children two are now living, one of which is our subject, and the only one who
ever came to Canada. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, June 22, 1808. While
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 557
in minor life he spent a part of the time with a clergyman. He was married July 8,
1830, to Ann, daughter of William and Mary Brown, of Lincolnshire. She was bom
in 1805. On October 10 of the year in which they were married they set sail for the
American soil, and on January 1, ld31, landed in New York City. Subsequently he
was employed as carman, and on the Crooked Lake Canal in New York State, until Aug.,
1833, when he, wife and one child, came to Canada by way of steamer and wacgon to
Caledonia. Near there this little family started on foot for their destination near
Cainsville, through the dense forest, a distance of 14 miles, he carrying their then
only child the entire distance. Upon reaching their home he began working for an
Indian, John Hill. Subsequently he was engaged in the erection of the first bridge
across Grand Kiver at Brantford. He laboured as renter and hired man until 1 840,
when he bought his first land in the Township of Onondaga, but with good health and
management his wealth continued to increase, until he now own? over 400 acres of land
in the Brant and Norwich Counties. He has served repeatedly in the Council of
Onondaga, and was prominently identified for a number of years with the schools of
his township. In the Agricultural Association he always manifested a deep interest,
and served it as President. Until 1838 he and wife belonged to the Church of Eng-
land, when they took up with the Wesleyan Methodists, to which they still belong.
Mr. Burrill and wife remained on the farm until 1874, when they retired and moved
to Brantford. Their children are nine, viz., Mary, deceased ; Rebecca, Qbarles, William,
Elizabeth, deceased ; Anna, deceased ; Henry, deceased ; Alfred and Ellen. All those
deceased, save the son, were married, and the five survivors are married. July 8,
1881, William Burrell and wife celebrated their golden wedding.
WM. GRAHAME and ROBT. CLOWE C. CARLYLE, Brantford Township,
&rmers, sons of Alexander, grandsons of James and great-grandsons of Thomas.
They now occupy " Bield " Farm, formerly owned by their father, who settled thereon
in the year 1844. He emigrated with his wife and family, from Dumfriesshire, Scot-
land, to New York State, in June of 1843, and came to Canada in the following spring.
He married Janet, daughter of Thomas Clowe, a native of Scotland, by whom he had
fieven children, viz., Jane W., Thomas, Jessie, John, Alexander, Wm. G. and Robert
O. James, father of Alexander, was bom in 1757, and died 24th January, 1832.
He was twice married ; the only issue by first marriage was John, who emigrated to
Canada in 1837 or 1838, and, settling near Brantford, resided in the neighbourhood
until his death. By the second marriage were four sons and four daughters — Thomas,
the eldest, known as one of the greatest literary men, bom 4th December, 1795, died
at Chelsea, London, 5th Febraary, 1881 ; Alexander, born 4th August, 1797 ; John
Aiken, Doctor of Medicine, translator of Dante's Inferno ^ etc., bom 7th July, 1801,
died September, 1879 ; Jean, Mary, James and Janet. The first of the Carlyles came
to Scotland along with the Bruces in the time of David II. A Sir John Carlyle wm
4;reated Lord Carlyle of Torthorwald, near Dumfries (ruins of old castle still extant),
in reward for a beating he gave the English at Annan. The name of Michael, the
fourth Lord Carlyle, is found on the Association Bond signed by the Protestant
Lords when Mary Queen of Scots was sent to Lochleven Castle. The arms of the
Oarlyles were two griffiths' heads, and the motto " Humilitate," adopted by Carlyle,
ihe historian.
ROBERT A. CHATTERSON, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Ancaster
Township, County of Went worth, March 9th, 1820, and came to Brant County in
1839. His father, Joseph, was bom in New Jersey, and came to Canada with his
father, Elias. Joseph married Sophia, daughter of John Kerlin, of English descent.
The said John Kerlin was an officer in the Revolutionary War, on the English side.
His wifei Susannah Bums, was related to BobertjJBunifl. Bobcnrt A. Chatterson was
558 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
one of thirteen children, two of whom died in in&Jicy, the remaining being Jolm
Bums, Ezekiel. Elias, Eobert A., Susannah, 'Solomon, Charlotte, Henry, Albert,
William and Eliza J. Robert married, November 23rd, 1841, Elmira, daughter of
John W. and Laura Cook, natives of Duchess County, New York. They are the
parents of three children, viz.: Emily L., bom April 4th, 1843, married Israel T.
Dawson August 27th, 1867 ; Mary L., bom July 11th, 1849, married Chas D. Smith
September 6th, 1876 ; Joseph M., bom September 25th, 1855, now practising laiir
in Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Chatterson is now owner of ninety acres of fine farmings
land in Brantford Township. He is a Justice of the Peace, and a member of the
Canada Methodist Church, of which body he is a Trustee and Steward. He is also
Secretary of the Mt. Pleasant Bible Society, holds a first-class certificate, and has
taught school a period of twenty years in the Counties of Brant and Oxford. He is
now enjoying the firuits of his labour.
SETH CHARLTON, farmer, Cainsville, is a son of Michael and Maria Charlton^
who both died in Brant County — he, September 21, 1854, and she, September 19, 1877.
They had a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. Seth was bom
July 18, 1840, in South Dumfries Township, Brant County, where he was raised to-
farm life, which he still followa He now owns twenty acres of land near Cainsville,
where he is pleasantly and comfortably located. This is the result of his own legiti-
mate efiorts since arriving at maturity. He and xiife are members of the Zion Church
and he, since 1879, an elder. For three years past he has been chosen as a magistrate.
HiH marriage with Elizabeth Hunter was celebrated December 29, 1865.
SOLOMON CHATTERSON, Esq., &rmer, Mohawk, was bom in the County of
Wentworth, Oct. 27, 1824, and is a son of Joseph and Sophia (Kerlin) Chatterson.
His father was bom in Canada and his mother in England ; Uie former was a pensioner
of the War of 1812. The subject of this sketch was twice married. His first wife was
Eliza Ann, daughter of Robert McAlister, and was the mother of three children, viz^:
Almanza, bom Feb. 5th, 1850; Alceona, born May 11th, 1851, died March, 1872;
Arrinthea, bom Sept. 30th, 1852. He again married Nov. 1st, 1871, Sarah Calista-
Terhune, daughter of Garret and Olive J. (Dresser) Terhune, whose biography appears
fully elsewhere in this work. She was bom, June 29th, 1846, and also has four
children, as follows : Leslie M., bom July 14th, 1872 ; Alice E., bom Sept. 28th,
1873 ; Emma R, bom June 18th, 1875 ; Effie O., bom Oct. 19th, 1881. Mr. Chat-
terson, who came to this county in 1845, owns 395 acres of superior farming land on-
Mount Pleasant Street, has for a number of years held a commission of Justice of the
Peace, and is a member of the Methodist Church. In his youth he received a common
school education, and his career through life has been one of probity and honour.
HORACE CHISHOLM, farmer, Paris, P. O., was bom in Brantford Township,
and is a son of John and Janet (Campbell) Chisholm. John Chisholm was bom in
Scotland in 1813, and came to Canada in 1833; here he married Janet Campbell in
1837, and in 1839 they settled in Brantford Township, seven miles from Brantford
and four from Paris. Mr. Chisholm resided .on this place until his death, March lOth,
1882. He received a limited education in Scotland, and had but 25 cents when he
started in life for himself. He had, by his own industry, acquired before his death a
neat competency of 150 acres, vdth good building, which his widow and family now
enjoy. His children are James, Horace, Jenny, Jessie, ^lalcolm and John, all members-
of churches. Mrs.. Chisholm, to whom we are indebted for the foregoing ^cts, is now
73 years old, but she retains all her mental faculties, and possesses the vigour of a much
younger body.
JAMES CLARK, farmer, Langford P. O., is a son of Walter Clark, who was boro
in Scotland, and came to Canada in minor life, where, in 1838, he married Ann Holdings
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 559
who was bom in England. They settled in Brant County, where he followed fanning
until his death in 1852, when he was drowned in the canaL His widow still survives
him. They were both members of the Church of England. Of their six children
James, the eldest son, was born four miles south of Brantford, October 18, 1840. H&
was raised to farm life, which he has always followed. His education was acquired
in the common schools, and ap he was the eldest son, much of his time at school wa»
broken by supplying the demands at home. He was married in January, 1867, to*
Sarah Harrold ; she was bom in England in 1845, but came to Canada in infancy.
They have seven children — John W., Emma J., Creorge H., James H., Bertha A.,
Thomas W., and Sarah J. Mr. and Mrs. dark are both members of the Canada
Methodist Church.
GEOKGE COLE, fanner, Cains ville P. 0., was bom in the States, 1830 ; son of
South worth Cole. He came to Canada when a boy, and in 1851 married Mary
Johnson. In the war of 1861, he enlisted in the 12th N. T. Cavalry, and rose to-
sergeant. Being captured at Hatteras Inlet, South Carolina, he was imprisoned at
AndersonviUe, where he died in 1864. He left four children, viz., Joseph B., Frank
S., Geoi^ H., and M. K. Mrs. Cole was a daughter of Joseph Brant Johnson, and
a granddaughter of Kolph Johnson, who was bom near Albany, N. T. He served
in the ranks of the British army during the Eevolutionary War, as ranger, with
Captain Joseph Brant He came to Canada after the battle of Bunker's Hill, about 1778.
He was the father of five children, viz., John, Ahey, William, Hannah, and Joseph
Brant. The latter was father of Mrs. Cole, and named in honour of Captain Brant.
He married Catharine, daughter of Jacob File, whose history may be found elsewhere
in this work. They had one child, Mary, now the widow of George Cole. She wa»
born in this county in 1831, and is now living on the old Johnson homestead. Of her
children, all are married except George H., who makes a specialty of stock-raising.
WM. J. COLEMAN, commercial agent, Cainsville P.O., was bom* in Antrim Co.,.
Ireland, December 28, 1838. His grandfather, John Coleman, a native of Ireland,,
emigrated to Canada in 1854, at the age of hinety -three 3'ears, vb^'tiog his son John
in Went worth County, where he died in the winter of the same year. John, the father
of our subject, came to Canada in 1841, settled in Dundas, where he carried on the-
boot and shoe business about four years, and then removed to Lot No» |0, West Flam-
boro', Wentworth County, where he now resides. His family consisted of eight chil*
drei; — Nancy, died May 23, 1S80, at the age of fifiy-two ; Joseph, married Mary Jane
Pierce; James died, aged nineteen ; William J., who was married twice ; Elizabeth
married John H. Cripps; Sanders married Annie McCollom ; Andrew married Ma>
tilda Cripps ; and Samuel now resides in Erin Township. Wm. J. Coleman married
Martha Gartley, November 14, 1861, who died, leaving two children — Mary Alice-,
bom May 24, 1863, married Thomas NichoU; and Edwin, bom November 19, 1865v
He married his second wife, Amanda M. Glover, June 30, 1869 ; she was boin June-
29, 1835, and was a daughter of Wm. Glover, who married Margaret Laitham. They
were the parents of two children — William, bom May 18, 1870 ; John, bom August
6, 1872. William, the subject of this sketch, received a common school education,
belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and is a member of the Independent Order of
Oddfellows, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
COKNELIUS COOK, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom neai: Montreal, and is a son
of Cornelius and a grandson of Silas Cook. The latter was bom in the State of New
Jersey about the middle of the last century, and was of English parentage. AileT
marriage he endured the hardships of the Revolutionary War, he and, his wife being
both captured by Capt. Joseph Brant on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania. They
were brought to the Mohawk Village, in this county, with many other prisoners^ and
560 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
were the only ones to escape the death of the scalping knife. After spending three
years with this tribe they were released, and settled quietly in the vicinity of Beams-
ville, and subsequently in ToiontOy where he owned at the time 200 acres of land now
in the city limits. He died near Prescott, leaving eight children, the father of oor
subject being the second. He was bom in Canada in 1788, and died in Brant County
in 1855. He had a family of eight children, our subject being the youngest. Corne-
lius Cook married Catherine Miller, by whom he had five sons. She died in 1876, and
he for a seooni wife mamed Miss B. Spence, of Brantford, but a native of Scotland.
They are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Cook owns the homestead, where he
carries on farming and stock-raising.
JOHN EDWIN COOK, farmer, Mohawk, was bom in this county Sept 30, 1834,
and is a son of John W, and Laura (Marshall) Cook, and a grandson of Daniel and
Phoebe (Andrews) Cook. He married, Nov. 3rd, 1858, Euphemia Smith, daughter of
John W. and Euphemia (Glover) Smith, who are further referred to in the biography
of Daniel Smith, Esq., of Northfield ; she was bom April lOth, 1837 ; their children
number four, viz., Mary Eliza, bom Oct 25, 1859 ; Ada Q., bom Nov. 15, 1862 ;
Annie L., boro Jan. 4, 1867 ; George E., bora July 7th, 1872 — all living. Mr. Cook
is a prosperous farmer, and resides on the farm where he was bom, adjoining the
Village of Mount Pleasant. He owns 140 acres of fine land at Mount Pleasant, and
34 acres of woodland in Oakland Township. He is a Justice of the Peace, and in
politics a Reformer.
BENJAMIN CCRNWELL, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of Henry and grand-
son of Benjamin Com well. The latter was of English parentage, bom on Long Island.
He was raised in the State of New Vork, where he married Elizabeth Abrams, who
was also of English extraction. In 1811 they, with their family, came to Canada and
settled west of Brantford, but a few months later bought a lot of land, east of Fair-
child's Creek, from Captain Brant. This they transformed from its natural to an
improved state, and endured many privations in the early part of this century. He
WHS by occupation a cooper, but did nothing at his trade after coming to Canada. He
buried his wife in 1836, and he died in 1842. They had bora to them three sons and
as many daughters, all of whom lived and died residents of Brant County ; two were
in the War of 1812 ; their names were respectively Elizabeth, Piiscilla, Henry, George,
Daniel and Deborah. Henry, the first son, was bom May 28, 1 792, in the State of
New York, but from the age of 17 was a citizen of Canada. He was a farmer through
life, of a wiry disposition^ and accumulated a neat competency. He married Fannie
Heverland, who was born in New York State, May 27, 1793, and died in Canada Nov.
II, 1874^having buried her husband on March 9, 1865. Thoy had six children, viz.,
Lottie, Margaret, John, Daniel, Benjamin and Morgan ; the second and third are
deceased. Benjamin was bom January 20, 1833, and was raised to farm life, which
he continues to follow, in connection with stock-raising. He has been twice married ;
first in 1862 to Helen Lampkin, and in 1855 to Ann Warbrick, a native of Brant
County but of English parentage ; she is the daughter of James and Elizabeth Fields.
Mr. and Mrs. Cora well have aix children, viz., Annie H, Martha E., Alice M., Henry
D., August B., and Mary C.
JOHN COULBECK, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of James Coulbeck, and one
of ten children. He was bom in Lincolnshire, England, where he matured, but came
to Canada in 1851, and two years later married, since which he has been a resident of
Brant County, where he now owns 210 acres of land, well improved and under culti-
vation ; this is mostly the result of his own untiring efforts, coupled with good
management. He has been identified with the Agricultural Association for a number
of years, and raises good stock. He has always taken an active interest in the cause
of education, and has given each of his six children a liberal education.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 561
JAMES COWHERD, farmer, Newport, was bom in England Feb. 7th, 1824, and
came to Brantford with his father when 13 years old. He is a son of William and
grandson of James Cowherd, who died in England. William was bom in 1790, emi-
grated to this country in July, 1837, settled in the city, and died in the Township of
Brantford in August, 1864. He married Mary Cooper, by whom he had three chil-
dren, viz., Margaret, Thomas and Mary, the latter of whom died in England. Mrs.
Cowherd died, and for a second wife he married Sarah Tenant, by whom he had one
«hild, James. Margaret and Thomas reside in Brantford. James, the subject of these
remarks, was twice married. First he married Elizabeth Hartly, their issue being
one child, Sarah Jane, now the wife of Henry Green. His second wife was Jane
Broughton, daughter of Richard and granddaughter of Thomas Broughton, a native
of England, where he died. Richard is still living in this county. They were mar-
ried Nov. 18th, 1850, and are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Cowherd has a
£rst-class farm of 79 acres, about five miles from Brantford, under an excellent state
of cultivation.
WILLIAM COWIE, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom at Hamilton, Ont, May
17th, 1840 ; he IB a son of John and Isabella Cowie, who are at present residing in
Onondaga Township. The subject of this sketch was married May 22nd, 1867, to
Catharine File, by whom he had three children, viz. : John, William Alexander, and
Annie Elizabeth. Mrs. Cowie died December 4th, 1873, and for a second wife Mr.
Cowie married Rachel McLellan, by whom he has four children, as follows: James,
Anthony McLellan, Elizabeth Kerr and Isabella, all members of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Cowie resided on a farm of 100 acres on Big Creek for eighteen years, but recently
he removed and took up his residence in Brantford Township.
THOMAS CRAIG, fanner, Branttord P.O., is a son of Samuel Craig, who was bom
in the County of Antrim, Ireland, in 1778. He matured in his native land, and about
1800 he came to Canada, settling in Lower Canada for a few years, where in 1824 he
married Jane Roseberry, who was born in Ireland about the first of the pi-esent cen-
tury, and now lives in Brantford. Samuel and family, about 1838, reached the limits
of Brant County, and four years later the City of Brantford, where he lived until 1880,
when, at the age of 102 years, he passed into the spirit land. He was through life a
farmer and distiller. He and wife had born to them five sons and as many daughters.
Of the family our subject, the third, was born in 1831 at St. Catharines, but since 1838
he has lived in the County of Brant, and by occupation is a tiller of the soil. In 1859
he married Ellen Edmondson, daughter of Christopher Edmondson, elsewhere mentioned.
Mr. and Mrs. Craig have a family of eight children, all living. Mr. Craig was born in
England in 1837, bat since 1844 has been a resident of the County of Brant
THOMAS D. CRAWFORD, farmer, Brantford P.O., was born in Brant County
October 28th, 1828. His father, Seth Crawford, was bom at Saratoga, New York State,
November 1st, 1801, and was of Scotch descent. He came to Canada in 1821 as a
missionary among the Indians about Brantford. He did much good among that race,
and in 1822, with their aid, built the first mission house on what is now the Keer Farm.
In 1823 he married Laura Mead, who was bom in August, 1822, in Greenfield, Saratoga
Co., New York State. Mr. Crawford followed his ministerial duties up to the time
of his death, which occurred May 13th, 1848. His wife died in 1852. They were the
parents of twelve children, of whom Thomas D. was the second. He followed the mis-
sionary work with his father until 1857, when he settled on his present farm, which his
£ftther procured from the Indians. In 1851 he married Eliza, daughter of Abel Weaver.
They are members of the Baptist Church, and have a family of live children. Mr.
Crawford has been Assessor and Tax Collector for two years.
JOHN DANIELS (deceased) was a son of Johu Daniels, Senr., who was of
Irish extraction, bom in the State of New York, where he married. About 1812 they
I
562 UISTORT OF BRANT COUNTY.
settled near Ancaster, Ontario, where both died. He was a strong hearty man of lai^
frame. Of his nine children ei<;ht came to Canada, wherp two yet survive. John, our
subject, was bom in 1 783, in the State of New York, where he learned the blacksmith
trade, which he followed mostly through life. He came to Canada at the time lus^
father came, but about 1840 located at Langford, where both he and wife died. Her
maiden name was Elizabeth Stills, one year his junior, and bom in New Jersey. They
were both members of the Canada Methodist Church. Their seven children were
Elijah, Phebe, Letitia, Sarah A., Eliza, Lydia H and WDliam J. Sarah A. still
resides at Langford, and is conducting a millmery store and dressmaking.
GEORGE DAVIDSON, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in England, April 11, 1829.
He emigrated to America with his parents, Thomas and Isabella Davidson, in 1851,
came to Canada in 1861, and settled in Biantford Township. His father was a miner
by trade, and died in 1872 ; his mother died in 1874. (jeorge Davidson married, in
1862, Mrs. Ann (Robinson) Crawford, a widow with three children. They had one
daughter, named Maggie Isabelle. Mr. Davidson has one brother in the State of Ken-
tucky, and another in the State of Indiana. Mr. Davidson owns a well improved
farm of 130 acres, and keeps a good line of stock. His family are members of the
M. E. Church.
WILLIAM DAWDY, farmer, Langford P.O., was bom in Welland County,
Ontario, in 1833, and is a son of James Dawdy and a grandson of Jeremiah Dawdy,
of Irish descent. His father, James Dawdy, was bom in Welland County, in 1812.
He was through life a farmer and miller, marrying Mary Osbom (now deceased), who
was bom in Canada in 1810. They were members of the Episcopal Church, and had
a family of eight children, our subject being the eldest, and only one living in Brant
County. He married Elizabeth Sweazy, who was born in 1835 in Wentworth County.
They were members of the Episoopal Church, and had ten children, viz., Mary ll,
Orton J., Bertha A., Hiram H. (deceased), Laura A., Lincoln, Emma J., Earl A., William
H., and Colbom H. Mr. Dawdy has made farming his special vocation, and as such
has been successful. Mrs. Dawdy died in 1882.
DANIEL DAY, farmer, Langford P.O. This gentleman is a son of Isaac W., a
grandson of Solomon, and a great-grandson of John Day. The latter, a native of Dublin,
Ireland, came to America in minor life, and married an English lady. They came to
Canada in the early part of the present century, and both died in Brant County. They
had a family of eleven children, three of whom became patriots in the War of 1812.
Solomon was bom in the States, and came to Canada when a boy with his parents. He
followed farming exclusively through life, save a little attention given to his saw-mi U,
which he erected on Fairchild's Creek about 1840. His wife was Sarah, daughter of
Isaac Whiting, an early settler in Brant County. Solomon, and wife held to the
Methodist Church. He died in Brant County and she near Waterford, while visiting
there. Of their family of fourteen children nine are now living, of whom Isaac W. i»
the second eldest, and was bom in Brant County in 1809. He was raised, through
the pioneer days, to farm life, and always followed that pursuit and now lives retired.
His wife was Susan Barton, who was bom in Pennsylvania, and came to Canada in
1821, and died in 1859. He and his wife belonged to the Methodist Church. Their
children were six, viz., Daniel, Morris (deceased), Anna, Ira, George, and Melina»
Among the positions of distinction Isaac had filled in the Church we mention that of
class-leader. Our subject is the eldest of the family just given, and was bom in Brant
County in 1835. He was raised to farm life, and remained at home until 1862, when
he married Elizabeth A., daughter of P. H. Swartz, an early settler near Niagara, where
Mrs. Day was bom, but since 1869 she has been a resident of Brant County. Mr.
and Mrs. Day are both members of the Canada Methodist Church, of which he had
BIOORAFHICAL SKETCHES. 563
been Trustee a number of years, is at present Steward and Treasurer, and Assistant
Superintendent of the S.S. He and wife are pleasantly located on their farm of 70
acref>| which they have owned since 1866.
JOHN DAY, Sr., farmer, Langford P.O., is a son oi Solomon and Sarah (Whiting)
Day, who are mentioned in Daniel Day's sketch. John was bom in Brant County in
1806, and was raised to farm life, which he has followed erer since. He now lives
retired. On April 12, 1832, he married Adeline, daughter of Allen and Elizabeth
Sage ; she was bom in Oxford County on March 26, 1808, and died in Brant County
Januaiy 13, 1854. John and wife belonged to the Canada Methodist Church, in which
he filled the office of trustee three years. He inherited 136 acres of land, on which he
now lives. His success through life had been good. He and wile had a family of five
children, viz., Emiline, Eunice, Sampson, Lydia and Solomon. Eunice died in 1871,
aged 36 years, and of Sampson a sketch appears in this volume.
SAMPSON DAY, farmer, Langford P.O. Another of the descendants of a pioneer
family is Sampson Day, who is a son of John Day mentioned in this work. Sampson
was bom in the Township of Brantford March 14, 1838, and was raised on a farm,
imbibing the principles of that noble industry which he still continues to follow. He
now owns a fine farm of 138 acres, well improved and under a high state of cultivation.
He was married in July, 1864, ro Hannah Ludlow, who with husband and children
belong to the Canada Methodist Church. Their children are Ariel A., John H. H.,.
Adie E., Fred S. and Frank E. H. Mrs. Day is a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth
(Harris) Ludlow, who were both bom in Ireland but were married in Canada.
EDWARD J. DENTON, farmer, Brantford. The gentleman whose name heads
this sketch is a son of Thomas and Jane N. (Clark) Denton. The latter was a direct
descendant of Sir William Wallace, the hero of Scotland, and also a descendant of
Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron of the 92nd Regiment, who fell in the Battle of Waterloo.
Thomas Denton was a direct descendant of General Fairfax, who figures so promi-
nently in English history. Thomas Denton and wife were both natives of Yorkshire,
England, where they matured, and on November 5, 1841, they were married. In
1845 they came to Canada, purchasing land of Chief Jacob Johnson near Brantford,
where he followed farming until death in 1864, forty-eight years of age; his widow sur-
vived until 1880. Their children were three in number, viz., Edward, James ai^
Walter. The last two died in infancy, and Edward is the only one surviving to relate
the history of so noble a family of Brant County. He is of Englbh parents, but bom
in Holstein, Germany, near the borders of Denmark, on Sept. 24, 1842. Since three
years of age he has been a resident of Canada, and owns a good farm near Brantford,
Johnson's Settlement. He has enjoyed two trips to England, one in 1855 and one in
1865. He received a fair education, and is a well-to-do citizen. In 1865 he married
Jane O. Ottley, second daughter ot Captain Ottley, of Stamford, who died in 1871,.
leaving three daughters — Mary, Edith and Jennie. His second wife, whom he married
Sept. 1st, 1873, is Mary M., daughter of Abram Law, Esq., Reeve of Richmond Hill.
They have one child, John Edward, bom in 1874.
WILLIAM DEPEW, Paris P.O., was born in Canada in 1830. He was a son of
William and Dezire (Goodhue) Depew, natives of Canada. They were the parents of
seven children, William being the third. He was married in 1864 to Lydia Steel, a
native of Canada. They have a family of five children, viz., Herbert, Alice, Mary, .
George and Edwin. Mr. Depew received a common school education in Glandford,
Wentworth County, in his youth. He now owns 81 acres of land, and is a Reformer
in politics.
JOHN DIAMOND, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom July 30, 1844, and i»
a son of Abraham and grandson of Joseph Diamond, a native of the United States,
564 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
who died in this Province. John, oar Bubject, married September 16, 1874, Jane
Eddy, daughter of John Eddy, of Oakland Township. He owns 35 acre^ of land ^re
miles from Brantford, in an excellent state of cultivation. Mr. Diamond is a member
of the Canada Methodist Church. John Eddy, father of Mrs. Diamond, was bom
November 25, 1805, and married Abigail Smith, daughter of John Smith, a native of
Pennsylvania, who emigrated to Canada. She died February 14, 1881, aged 64 years.
Mr. Eddy is still living in Oakland Township, and is one of the oldest surviving
pioneer settlers in the county.
COK HIRAM DICKIE, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of New Brunswick,
was bom October 4, 1826, c^me to this Province in 1838, and settled on the feum
where he now resides. His father^s name was Hector, as was also that of his paternal
grand&ther. The latter was Commissary in Lord Rawdon's B«giment in South Caro-
lina during the American Revolutionary War, until he was removed to the West
Indies, and subsequently to New Brunswick. Hector, CoL Dickie's father, held a
commission, and served his king and country as Ensign in New Brunswick during the
War of 1812. Col. Dickie married in 1863 Mary Jane Kerr, daughter of Captain
George Henry Kerr, and his family oonsbts of two daughters — Mary and Eloner Jane.
He has in his possession the rifle that was the trusty companion of Captain Joseph
Brant, the renowned chief and warrior of the Six Nation Indians. The subject of
this biogiaphy received what was at that time considered a good education at the
common school and by private instruction. He was commissioned Colonel of the
Volunteers February 11, 1876. He owns a fine farm of 150 acres, beautifully situated
on the banks of the Grand River, two and a half miles above the City of Brantford,
and is at present living in the pleasant enjoyment of a retired life.
DANIEL DOWLING, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of Michael Dowling, who
was bom in the County of Kildare, Ireland, in the early part of the present century,
and died in Brant County, Ontario, Canada, during the eighth decade of the present
century. He was of Irish parentage, and his father died in his native land, but his
mother came to Canada and died in Brant County. Michael matured in Dublin, Ire-
land, but came to Canada shortly before the Rebellion, and in 1845 marrie^l Maiy,
daughter of John Whiting. They settled in Brantford Township, where he followed
farming until his death, owning the farm of our subject from about the year of his
marriage. Michael and wife had a family of eight children, viz., John, Rachel, James,
Daniel, Ann, .Jane, Mary, and Elizabeth — all now living. Of the number, Daniel, the
fourth, was bom on the farm he now owns, in 1854. He was brought up to farm life,
and still follows that occupation. He was married in 1880 to Ida Daniels, whose
father, John, was an early settler and blacksmith in the vicinity of Langford.
CHRISTOPHER EDMONDSON, deceased, was a son of Christopher Edmondson,
Senr., who is mentioned in the sketch of William Edmondson. The subject of this
sketch was bom in Yorkshire, England, in 1829, but from twelve years of age was a
resident of Brant County until his death, in June, 1850. While at a bam-raising a
piece of falling timber struck him and ended the career of one of the citizens of Brant
County. He was through Ufe a farmer and stock-breeder. In 1875 he, with Robert
Snider, went to Scotland and imported the first heavy horses of the county, also Suffolk
pigs, Cotswold sheep, and a superior breed of chickens. Mr. Edmondson, in addition.
to this enterprising spirit, was a man of honour and ability, and was repeatedly elected
a member of the County as well as the Township Council ; also served three years as
Reeve. He was married about 1855 to Mary Renwick, who was a native of Canada,
and died in Brant County in 1871. Of their eight children six are living, viz., Jane,
Ellen, Alexander, Christopher, Mary, and Maggie.
WILLIAM EDMONDSON, farmer, Brantford P. 0., is a son of Christopher Ed-
mondson, and a grandson of William Edmondson. The latter was a native of England,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 565
and could trace his ancestry in the parish church for many years. He lived and died
in his native land. Of his children, Christopher, the first son, was bom in 1 800, in
' Yorkshire, where he grew up to farm life, and married Ellen, daughter of Benjamin
Lambert, in 1823. Tbey came to Canada in 1841, with four children, viz., Christopher,
William, Ellen and John. The latter died at Montreal. The family settled in Brant-
ford, where they remained until 1846, when they bought land and cultivated it until
his death. He died in 1871, leaving a widow, who still survives at the age of 82 years.
Of their children, William, the only son living, is a native of England, but from child-
hood has lived in Canada, where he now owns a good farm of 115 acres on Lots No.
37 and 38, in the third concession. A part of his time he bandied blooded stock, but
now devotes his time exclusively to farming. His ability has resulted In placing him
in the Council, and he has recently been appointed Justice of the Peace. His first
wife was Cassandra Henwick, who died, leaving one child. His second wife'was Ellen,
sister of Robert H. Snyder. She died, leaving three children. He married for his
third wife Magdalena, sister to his second wife.
J. K. ELLIS, Postmaster at Mount Pleasant, Township of Brantford, was born
*about one mile east of the present post office, Sept. 11th, 1810, and is a son of Allin
EUis, a native of " Big Bend,'' Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, where he was bom
in 1788. He again was the son of Henry Ellis, who came to Canada in 1800, settling
on a farm of 200 acres, on Lot 7, east side of the Mount Pleasant Road. He was a
weaver by tiade, an occupation he followed up to his death in January, 1831. His
farm was the first to exist on the 4,000 acre tract of land which was surveyed and laid
out by Captain Joseph Brant, and was at that time a portion of the Gore District, in
the Township of Haldimand, County of Wentworth. Henry Ellis was by birth a
Welshman, and a descendant of the Earl of Strambeau, whose crest was a castle with
two swords. He married Margaret Maban, a native of Donegal, Ireland. They were
the parents of several children, four of whom came to Canada — now all deceased. Mrs.
Ellis died during the War of 1812. One son, Allin, father of our subject, was the
seventh son. He was twelve years of age when he came to Canada, and was reared on
the home farm. He was a natural physician, and held in much requisition in early days,
as he proved himself a valuable fnend to the sick. When the War of 1812 broke out
the grandfather and his sons offered their services to assist in i*epelling the inva4iBg
foe, but the former was seized with camp fever, and compelled to return home. His
wife, in washing his clothes, contracted the disease and died of it Allin Ellis was one
of these volunteers, and drove a yoke of oxen at the battle of Lund/s Lane, serving
afterwards during the entire period of the war. He was under the command of Captain
Thomas Perrin, nicknamed Captain ** Barefoot,'' because, on training days, he was wont
to drill his company in his bare feet. Allin was engaged in farming till the day of his
death, in September, 1849. He married Hannah Sturgis, from Pennsylvania, who died
February 15th, 1874. She was a daughter of Amos Sturgis, of Upper Miriam, Chester
County, Pennsylvania, who was a Captain in the Continental army, under General
Washington. Rachel Randall, her mother, was bom in Philadelphia, in 1757, died
in 1814. Amos Sturgis was a son of Thomas Sturgis, also a native of Philadelphia,
bom there in 1722, died in 1802 ; and those two, Amos and Thomas Sturgis, came to
Canada along with the Ellis family. To Mr. and Mrs. Allin Ellis -were bom four boys
and eight girls, and of these three boys only are now living — Henry, in Chicago, 111. ;
J. L. and A. W., both in Mount Pleastmt. John R. Ellis was reared on the farm, and
worked on the homestead farm till he became of age, when he learned the trade of car-
penter and worked at it for some years. He erected his own residence, as well as those
of George Bryce and Herbert Biggar ; subsequenty he applied himself to the cabinet-
making business for a period of 35 to 40 years. In September, 1S80, he received the
S66 HISTO&Y OF BRJlST COUNTY.
appointment, under Sir John Macdonald's Administration, of Postmaster at Moont
Pleasant. Mr. Ellis, who is a Conservative in politics, has never held any other office
of consequence. He married December 25th, 1844, Janet Carljle, a native ot Cumber-
land, England, and daughter of John Carlyle, a half brother of Thomas Carljle. Her
mother was Margaret Bend, an English lady. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis had a family of six
children, three of them dying in infancy, and three boys are living : John Fitz Allin,
the oldest son, is a member of the firm of Barber & Ellis, bo6kbinder8 and manufac-
tuiers of envelopes ; flobert Baldwin, a broker in Toronto, and W. R., manufacturer
of mackinaw hats, Detxxiit. Nettie, an adopted daughter, is at home with Mr. and
Mrs. Ellis. Mr. £. was formerly a member of the Congregational Church in Brantford,
and his wife attends the Canada Methodist Church, Mount Pleasant. A. W., the
second son of Allin EUia, was bom on the home farm, May 11th, 1819, and has been
engaged in farming all his life. He lived on the old homestead until he sold it, when
he bought property in Mount Pleasant, a farm of fifty acres. He is a Reformer in
politics, and has been Trustee of the Village Grammar School for nine years. Has also
acted as Returning Officer since 1879, and was married July 1st, 1852, to Isabella
McDonald, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who came to Canada with her widowed »
mother. They have a family of eight children — Isabella, wife of Archibald St Clair,
hardware merchant, Paisley, Ontario ; James, at home ; Alexander, book-keeper for
the Canada Paper Manufacturing Company, Toronto ; Albert E., book-keeper for
William Patterson, Belleville, Out ; William Wallace, with W. F. Cockshutt, hard-
ware merchant, Brantford ; Martha S., Herbert H., and Julia M., all three at home.
Mrs. A. W. Ellis is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant.
STEPHEN FAIBCHILD, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Townsend,
County of Norfolk, Ont^ Jan. 15, 1825, and is a son of Timothy Fairchild, a native of
Brant County, where he was bom in 1799. When five or six years of age, Mr. Fair-
child removed ta Oakland Township, where he married, and then returned to Townsend,
but soon after again made his way back to Brant County. When a yoang man, he
taught school, first at what is now Section No. 7 of the Township of Brantford, and
subsequently at Bealton, in the Township of Townsend ; then at Waterford, Ont. In
this occupation he 4«rafi engaged for five winters, and a portion of one summer. He
was then married July 7, 1852, to Charity McMichael, of the Township of Townsend,
by whqfn he has five children — R. Melvin, registered practitioner of medicine ; Anna,
wife of George F. Miles, agricultural agent on Mr. Fairchild's farm ; Harry A., study-
ing law with Crear & Muir, Hamilton ; May, and Charles C. At the time of his
marriage, being poor, Mr, Fairchild put all his energies to his work, and secured a
farm of 160 acres, on which he resided 28 years, and wliich he still owns, and then
bought hill present fiurm of 80 acres, the old homestead, where he now lives. His
father gave him 80 acres of the first farm be owned, and to this he added 80 acres. Mr.
Fairchild has always taken an interest in fine stock, but has never made it a specialty
in his farming operations until of late. He is a Reformer, but does not take any active
part in politics, and has filled the office of Justice of the Peace for about ten years. He
attends the Presbyterian Church, and his wife and oldest daughter are members of the
Baptist body.
PHILIP FAIRLIE, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Renfrewshire, Scot-
land, was bom in the parish of Erskine, March 17, 1825, and came to Canada in
1852. He is a son of Homer. Young and Flora (McDonald) Fairlie, and married, Oct
16, 1854, Eliza Cleator. She is a daughter of John and Mieiry (Renwick) Cleator, the
latter of whom was born Feb. 5, 1826, and migrated to this country from Cumber-
land, England, in 1828. Her father and mother were natives of Whitehaven and
Cockermouth respectively. The family of our subject were : Henriettai bom June 4,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 567
1657; John H., bom Aug. 12, 1858; Josephine, bom Oct. 6, 1860, died Dea U, 1864;/
Daniel H., bom May 1, 1863; Philip, bom Nov. 11, 1866; Jane E., bom Sept 6,
1869. John Cleator, father of Mrs. Fairlie, was at one time prominently engaged in the
business of distilling, and about 1833 erected a grist and oatmeal mill, but subsequently
constracted it into a plaster mill, and occupied himself largely in the manufacture of
land plaster. He owned the plaster beds at the Hiver Bend, in the yicinity of Brant-
ford, and was the first white man who owned the farm on which Mr. Fairlie now
resides. He was a miller by trade, and died in 1849.
CHARLES E. FILE, farmer, Cainsville P.O., is a son of John J. File, and grand-
son of John File, Senr. The latter was of German descent, and born in 1760 near
Albany, New York. When a boy his father sent him on an errand to the l^oops of
the Eevolutionary War, from- whence he did not return. He remained with the army,
and gradually drifted into Canada when the war was over, and became one of Brant
County's first white settlers. He became a strong hearty man, of indomitable per-
severance, and did much towards the improvement of the county, which is elsewhere
mentioned in this volume. At one time while clearing, he was limited to three potatoes
per day. He settled in what is known as Smoky Hollow, in the dense unbroken
forests, that gave way to the muscle and sinew of a noble pioneer. He married Sarah,
daughter of William Crum, who was in all respects a helpmate to him. She was
bom in the Mohawk Valley, in N.T. State, but with her father came to Canada at an
early day. The living of John FOe and wife was plain as well as their clothing, all
raised and manufactured at home. He and wife both died in Brant County at ad*
▼anced agesi Nine of their family grew to maturity, viz., Joseph, Malekiah, Benjamin,
Maiy, John J., Catharine, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Lavinia. John J. is one of five
now living, and was bom in this county in October 25, 1800. He grew up to farm
life, and has always followed it in connection with stock-raising. He became one of
the well-to-do citizens after many years' toil and manual labour. On the 6th of July,
1830, he married Bebecca Clark. She died March 13, 1867, aged 56 years. They
had a family of seven children — Levi, William H., Charles £., Mary, George A.,
Morris and Kebecca A. Four are now living. Charles E., the third, was bom on
June 26, 1841. He was raised to farm life, and now owns and cultivates 109 acres.
He was married in June, 1869, to Elsey File, who was bom in Brant County in 1843.
They have seven children, five living — Asa, Arthur, Theodore, Alice and Orphy.
DAYID FILE is a son of John and grandson of Jacob File. The latter was bom
in N.T. State, where he matured and married, raising a family of four sons and three
daughters. He with his family moved to Canada in 1815, and settled in what is now
Brantford Township, he being among the first white settlers in the neighbourhood. He
followed farming through life. He and his wife both died on Lot No. 2, in the east
end of the township ; their children all settled in the county, and were among the
pioneers of the same ; all were successful in life, and their posterity dot the.
county here and there. John, third son of Jacob File, was bom in New
Tork State, 1801, and died in this county, June, 1881, having lived here sixty-
six years, enduring all the privations of those early day& He was with-
out doubt one of the most thorough and successful farmers in the county. He
first married Elizabeth Hazel in 1826, who died in 1 839, leaving him the care of eight
children. . His second wife was Anna, widow of Jabez Myers, and daughter of Daniel
Barton. By this marriage he had five children. She still lives, surrounded and loved
by children and step-children. The subject of this sketch is second son of John Filci
and was bom in 1832 in this cuunty, where he has always resided. He also followed
£ftrming in Onondaga Township, where, by hard toil and strict economy, he hewed
him out a home in Uie bush. He was successful in business, and in 1872 he retired,
568 HISTORY OF BRANT. COUNTY.
and moved to the pleasant Village of Cainsville Maj 9, 1859. He married Floia
Oliver. She vas born in the County of Peel, 1837, and removed with her father to
this county in 1845. She and her husband are active workers in the temperance
cause.
WILLIAM FORD, Mount Vernon, merchant and custom miller, was bom Sept
26, 1840. He is a son of William and grandson of George Ford, who was born and
died in Cornwall, England. Our subj eel's father was also bom in Cornwall, and after
twice visiting the United States, where he worked foi some time at his trade, milling,
returned to his native country, and died Xov. 20, 1882. He was one of a family of
fourteen children — six brothers and eight sisters — of whom two brothers, Samuel and
Charles, came to America to reside permanently. He had a family of nine children,
viz., John W., Mary T., William, Samuel, Francis W., George, Alice, Charles and Patty
J. William, our subject, came to Canada September 30, 1861 ; he stopped at OakviUe
about ten years ; from there to Albion and Adjala Townships, where he resided some
time, removing to this county in 1881, and going into the milling business on the site
of the Old Perrin Mills. He married May 9, 1867, Eliza A., daughter of Samuel and
Mary (Atkinson) Bird, of Fnglish parentage. Mr. Ford was brought up a miller, as
was his father and all his imcles on his father^s side. They are the parents of eight
children, viz., William 8., Mary J., John H., Charles £., Annie B., Fanny M., Albert
H. and George Mc, who died July 29, 1878. Mr. Ford is a member of the Free
Masons, Independent Order of Oddfellows, and Orange Society. He has at present a
half interest in the mill, which does a business of about 8,000 barrels per year, beddes
the custom trade of about 7,500 bushels.
DANIEL S. FOULDS, one of th^ pionee^ of the Township of Brantford, and resid-
ing on what is known as the '' Phelps' Tract,'' on the Mount Pleasant Eoad, was bom
in Lancashire, England, August 1st, 1813. His father was William Foulds, a native of
the same county in England, and a weaver by trade, and emigrated to Canada in 1841,
settling at Brantford. He resided there for a period of eighteen years, when he re-
turned to England, and died there in his 85th year. He married Susan Sutcliffe, who
bore him nine children, five of whom are now living, and t^o of these are residents of
Brant County. Mrs. Foulds died the same year as her husband, in the 80th year of
her age. The subject of this biography early learned the trade of a weaver, but sabafr-
quently worked as a butcher and farm labourer, until he came to Canada in his 28th year.
He soon after purchased a farm of 54 acres, on the '' Stewart and Buggies Tract," where
he resided for 20 years. In March, 1872, he purchased his present farm of 130 acres,
where he has since lived. Mr. Foulds has always taken an active interest in the Brant
County Agricultural Society, and has several times filled the office of Director, besides
officiating on several occasions in the capacity of Judge. While residing on his farm,
he served 19 years as Trustee of School Section No. 6. He is a member of Farringdon
Independent Church, and a Deacon of that body. Has been a member of the Town-
ship Council for two years, and twice Collector of the Township Taxes. Mr. Foulds was
imited in mairiage, May 1st, 1844, with Ellen Leeming, a sister of Henry B. Leeming,
Collector of Customs at Brantford, and their family numbered eight children, of whom
seven survive, viz.: John, with T. S. Shenston, Begistrar, County of Brant ; Henry A.,
Collector of Market Fees, Brantford ; William, a &rmer, on the Newport Bead, in this
township ; James F., at home; Robert L., book-keeper for Frank Cockshutt & Co.,
Brantford ; Margaret S. and Norman D. Mrs. Foulds, who was a member of Far-
ringdon Independent Church, died Feb. 16, 1877. Margaret, Henry and William are
also members of the same church.
EDMUND FOULGER, retired, Cainsville P. 0., was bom in Norfolk County,
England, in 1823, and emigrated to Canada in 1846. He was son of John and
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. ^ 569
Sarah (Cook) Foulger, who had a family of nine children, of whom our subject is the
only one living in Canada. The father of our subject was a carpenter by trade, and
died in his native county at the age of 60 years. Our subject learned the taUor's
trade, which occupation he followed for a period of four yeurs, when his health failing
from confinement, he sought the more active occupation of fanning, and continued that
business for a period of 33 years. In 1 844 he married, at the age of 21 years, Harriet,
widow of William Stewart, whose maiden name was Atkins. She had by her
former husband five children, two of whom are now living, viz., Elizabeth and William.
Our subject's family of five children — John, now a merchant in Brantford ; Sarah
A., Edward, merchant in Cainsville ; Henry and Harriet — wQre all bom in the County
of Brant Sarah died in 1881. Mrs. Foulger's father was John Atkins, who'^was bom
in England, and coming to Canada in 1837, settled in Brantford, where he and his
wife died, leaving five children, all now living in this county.
GEORGE FRANKLIN, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom May 9th, 1829,
and is a son of Henry and grandson of Henry Franklin, natives of Buckinghamshire,
England. Henry, father of George, was born in 1795, came to Canada about 1840,
and located in this county about five mOes southward from the City of Brantford.
In England he married Rose, daughter of Henry Burris, who was bom in 1797,
and died in August, 1863. They had eleven children, three of whom now sur-
vive, viz., George, Job and William ; those deceased are Reuben, Fanny, John, Henry^
Ann, Sophia, Mary and Thomas. The subject of this sketch was twice married.
His first wife was Caroline Stratford, daughter of James and Martha Stratford. They
were married Nov. 20th, 1851, their ch^dren being James, bom July 25th, 1852 ;
George, bom Dec. 4th, 1853 ; Walter, bom August 23rd, 1856, died May 10th, 1881,
and Rose, bom Sept. 23rd, 1857. He married the second time, Sept. 24th, 1872,
Annie Thompson, daughter of William Thompson, bom Dec., 1845 ; their children are
Nettie R, bom Sept 25th, 1873; Maggie M., bom July 22nd, 1875 ; Mary Jane,
bom March 3rd, 1877 ; Rachel E., born Feb. 18th, 1879 ; Henry, bom March 3Td,
1881. Mr. Franklin and family are members of the Baptist Church. He owns a fine
farm of 50 acres, well cultivated, five miles from Brantford.
THOMAS FRAZEE, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in New Brunswick, April
28th, 1805 ; he is a son of Louis Frazee, who was a soldier in the Revolutionaiy
War, and who fled to New Brunswick, where he followed military life, afterwards
becoming a captain in the British army. He married Catherine Thorn, and had nine
children, viz., Timothy, Abigail, Joseph, Hannah, Esther, Martha, Morris, William and
Thomas. Thomas Frazee married Lydia Riley, who was bom August 24th, 1806 ; she
was a daughter of William Riley, a native of Ireland. Their children are Sarah A,
bom December 23rd, 1828 ; Emily, bom Nov. 18th, 1830 ; Catherine, bom May 9th9
1833 ; Abigail, bom Nov. 19th, 1835 ; Ezra, bom June 9th, 1838 ; Lewis, bom Oct.
5th, 1840 ; Harding W., bom Aug. 23rd, 1844, died August 6th, 1849 ; Oliver, bom
August 8th, 1847, died July 12th, 1849, and Esther M., bom May 28th, 1850. Mr.
Frazee is owner of 80 acres of valuable land, situate three miles from Brantford, upon
which is an orchard that yields in a good season upwards of 2,000 bushels of apples,
and other fruit in abundimce. He and his family are members of the Canada Metiiod-
ist Church, and he is a Reformer in politics.
THOMAS GEDDIE, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom May 10th, 1842 ; he was a son
of Robert and Estena (Mason) Geddie, natives of Scotland. Thomas Geddie came to
Canada in 1871 ; he first lived in Paris ; from there he removed to Dumfries Town-
ship, where he remained two years, and then settled on his present farm, upon which
he has lived three years. Mr. Greddie married, in 1866, Catharine Arthur, by whom
he had two children, Robert, bom April 29, 1868, and Janet (deceased). They are
34
570 mSTOBT OF BRANT COUNTY.
members of the Presbyterian ChurcL Mr. GMdie owns 120 acres of improved land,-
which he bought of John Bobison, pleasantly located, two miles from Paris and seven
from Biantfoid.
REV. PETER GERMAN, minister of the Canada Methodist Church, was bom in
Welland County in 1818, and is a son of Lewis and Nancy (McGee) German, who
were married in Prince Edward County, Canada, afterwards settling in Welland, where
he remained until 1823, when he came to this county, burying his first wife here. He
married again, and for forty years he held land in Dumfries. He was a patriot in the
War of 1812, and participated in the battle of Queenston Heights, where he was
injured. He had by his first wife four children, viz. : Creorge, Mary, Jane and Peter ; of
the number, Mary is dead ; the other three live in Brant County^ the youngest being the
subject of this sketch. Peter Grerman came to Brant County in 1823, with his parents.
He was brought up on a farm, and enjoyed the privilege of the early pioneer's schooL
At the age of 15 years he united with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, two years later
was licensed as an exhorter, and three years later as a local minister. He was again
advanced to itinerant minister, taking a four yeats' course of study in theology ; and
during the time he attended regularly to his circuit, which was at Norwich. In 1856 he
was stationed at Comwell, on the St. Lawrence, for three years; from thence he located
in Brant County, where he remained seven years. Having served the Church in Port
Stanley and Port Eowen, he returned to this county, and has for five years resided in
his comfortable home, one mile east of Brantford. He married in 1838 Martha« Nefl^
of Wentworth County, Ontario. They were the parents of three children, two of
whom are living — Eliza, wife of Rev. Able Edwards, now of Muneie, and Rev. John
F. German, a graduate of Victoria University in 1864. He is now located at Picton,
Prince Edward County.
THOMAS ALLEN GOOD, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in the County of
Brant in August, 1843, where he now ranks among the successful farmers and stock
raisers. In 1875 he married Mary Addington, eldest daughter of George Ballachey, Esq.,
an English barrister. He is the son of Allen Good, Esq., who was bom in the City
of Cork, Ireland, in the year 1799. He was married in the year 1830 to Eliza,
daughter of Charles Can'oll, Esq., of the same city. He came to Canada in the year
1839, and established the Bank of British North America, in MontreaL Subse-
quently he bought a farm of six hundred acres in the Township of Brantford in this
county, where he held the positions of Coimcillor and Warden for a number of years.
In politics he was a Conservative, and in religion a staunch member of the Episcopal
Church of England. He died on the 21st day of December in the year 1876.
GIDEON GOODFELLOW, farmer, Brantford Township, bom in 1815 in Roberton
Parish, Scotland, is a son of Gideon Goodfellow, a native of Roxburghshire, Scot-
land. He emigrated to Canada in 1834, returning in 1838, and again coming to Canada
in 1839, in which year he married Elizabeth, daughter of William and granddaughter
of Henry Burton, at Toronto, she having emigrated in the year 1839. This union was
blessed with seven children, viz., William, born October 12, 1841, in Lincoln County ;
Elizabeth, bom 1843, now residing in Manitoba ; married James Chisholm, and has a
family of five children, viz., Annie, Hettie, Gideon, John, and Helen ; Jenny, bom
March, 1845, Catharine S., bom April, 1847 ; Mary A., born 1850, died 1852 ; Mary,
born 1854, died 1863 ; Gideon, bom August, 1852, died January, 1864. Mrs. Grood-
fellow and family are members of the Presbyterian Churchy and now occupy one of the
finest and best farms of the County of Brant, of 1 60 acres, pleasantly situated on the
banks of Grand River, about one mile from the City of Brantford ; it is known as
'* River view Farm,** having been so christened ten or twelve years ago.
CHARLES GRANTHAM, carriage-maker, Cainsville P.O., was bom February 8,
1836, in Brant County. His father, Thomas Grantham, was bom in 1809, in York-
BIOGRAPHICilL SKETCHES. 571
flhire, England, where he learned blacksmithiag. He came to Brantford in 1830,
where he manied Kath Silverthorn, who was born in London, England, in 1803, and
came with her parents to Canada in 1817. Thej started in life with a very limited
capital, but by honest industry a cumulated a fortune, and live now in Brant-
ford City. They had seven children, the oldest being the subject of this sketch.
Charles Grantham followed farm life until 1865, when he removed to Cainsville and
began waggon-making. He married, December 25, 1857, Fanny, daughter of James
and Agnes Montrose, of German and Scotch descent. Mrs. Grantham was born in
Brantford in 1836, and now has seven children.
SAMUEL GREENWOOD, Cainsville, a native of England, was bom May 11th,
1809, and came to Canada in 1843. He was a son of John, and grandson of Richard
Greenwood, natives of the Town of Knightly, Yorkshire, England. Richard Green-
wood died in England at the age of eighty-eight years. John, his son, was bom about
the year 1772, and died in 1852. He married Rebecca Widdop, of English parentage,
who died about the year 1847. This union was blessed with ^ve children, of whom
Widdop is dead, and Sarah, Joseph, John and Samuel are still living. Samuel
Greenwood settled in this county, and commenced life upon a bush farm, which he had
the satisfaction of converting into a valuable homestead. He was married in England
to Mary Ann Smith, a daughter of Jonas Smith, in 1839. She died Nov. 8th, 1853.
Their children were five in number, of whom three are living — Elizabeth, John and
Peter ; Rebecca and Edward are dead. Mr. Greenwood took for his second wife Jane
McCallum, daughter of Duncan and Barbara McCallum, natives of Campbelltown,
Argyleshire, Scotland. Her mother was one of fifteen of a family, and came to this
country with four daughters, her husband having previously died. The subject of this
outline received a common school education, and set out in life with but very little
capital, but firmly impressed with the motto, " Where there's a will there's a way,"
and has honestly earned a substantial competency. His grandson, one of Rebecca's
family, is now residing with him at Cainsville.
PETER J. GRIFFIN, merchant miller. Mount Yemen, is a son of Robt Griffin,
a native of Canada, whose father was bom in the United States. Robert Griffin was
bom at Waterdown in 1815, and came to Norfolk County in 1836. He Mras raised
to farm life, was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and a Conservative
in politics. He married Margaret, daughter of Peter Johnston and granddaughter of
George Johnston, a native of Scotland, who came to America in 1842,. dying in 1866
in Okuo. They were the^parents of nine .children, viz. : Isabella, Solomon, Greoige,
dead ; Sophronia, Peter J., James, Mary, Elizabeth and Enos. Peter J. Griffin, on
October 24th, 1868, married Mary J. Tapley, daughter of Samuel and grand-
daughter of Nathaniel Tapley, a native of New Brunswick. He came to Can-
ada and settled at Tapleytown, after whom the place was named. Samuel Tapley
was bom in New Brunswick in 1798, and came to Canada with his &ther, and
to this county about forty years ago ; he died in 1870. He had a family of four
children by hus first wife, thr«e of whom are dead ; Sarah is still living. He married
for his second wife Mary Hubble, widow of Asa Tapley, by whom he had ten chil-
dren, viz.: Drusilla, Mary J. Elizabeth, Chester, Caroline, Yiro^oia, Wellington, Josiah,
Palmer and Nettie. The subject of this sketch had four children, viz. : Rosamond,
bom September 30, 1872 ; Desamond, bom August 18, 1875, died May 24th, 1876 ;
George J., bom January 2, 1877, died January 17th. 1877 ; and Margaret A., bom
September 20th, 1878. Mr. Griffin is a member of the A.O.U.W., and an adherent
of the Methodist Church. He is the owner of the mill standing at present on the
site of the Old Perrin Mills, and doing a business the profits of which are about
$3,200 per year.
672 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
CHARLES GURNEY, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Canada in 1833. Hia
&ther was Charles Gumej, a native of England, who emigrated to Canada in 1832,
and settled near Beamsville, where he engaged in mercantile pursaits. He afterwards
removed to Paris, carrying on the same business there for five years. At the expinir
tion of this time, Mr. Gumey bought a land right of Mr. Chambers, paying the
Government for it in 1842. He taught the first school in the neighbourhood of Paris.
His family were members of the Baptist Church. Charles J. Gurney, oar subject,
married December 4th, 1861, Phoebe Lovett, by whom he had two diildren, named
Charles W. and Amanda. Mr. Gumey having been brought up to farm life, is suc-
ceeding well He owns a well regulated farm of 300 acres, has it completely stocked,
and has an abundance of fruit laid out. He is a Reformer in politics.
JOHN HATCHER, deceased, was the only son of John Hatcher, an eminent
scientist and machinist of his time ; was born in 1813 in Biddenden, Kent, England.
He developed in early life a talent for science, and applied himself particularly to the
manufacture of watches and clocks, in which he was successful, having completed, at
the age of 19, a clock of excellent workmanship. In that business he was engaged for
some years ; then afterwards became interested in the bfick and tile business, in whii^
he and his father invented a tile machine which took the lead in the manufacture of
that article. After his father's death he became sole proprietor, and extensively
engaged in brick and tile manufacturing, in which he was very suocessfuL He was
brought up in the Church of England ; at the age of 25 he was converted, and united
himself with the Bible Christian Society, taking a very active part, and becoming a
local preacher. He was the prime mover in establishing a church in the place of his
birth. He also became a zealous worker in the temperance cause, and in 1846 he was
the first in his neighbourhood to institute a lodge called, " Star of Kent Tent Fecha-
bites ;" it was up-hill work for temperance workers at that time ; he continued an
active worker and total abstainer, in every sense of the word, down to his death,
every member of his family having followed his example in this respect. In 1841 he
married the youngest daughter of Samuel Watts (a most amiable woman) ; she was
bom in Biddenden, County of Kent, England, 1819. The issue of the marriage was 4
children ; William Preab, Thomas, Mary A. (deceased), and Susanna. In 1852 he
emigrated to the United States, settling in Wayne County, New York ; after three
years he saw the prospects of war looming up on account of slavery ; he then came
to Canada, and settled in Brantford. In 1856 he moved on his farm of 100 acres, in
Lot 43, third concession (County of Brant), where he lived quarter of a century. He
had great love for stock, and spent much time among his cattle, taking great delight
in farming pursuits. On leaving England, the absence of his chosen society caused
him to join the Methodist body, in which he continued unto death. On October 5th,
1880, he died full of years and ready for his departure, having lived a most industri-
ous and useful life. The strict attention he gave to his business sowed the seeds of
his ailments ; in the last three years of his life he was afflicted with '' rheumatic
paralysis," which rendered him almost helpless. His illness at last was shorty and he
died in peace, leaving his famUy well provided for.
" The sweet remembrance of the jast
Shall floarish when they sleep in dost''
GEORGE HAWLEY, farmer, Langford P. O., is a son of Sands Raymond Hawley,
and a grandi*on of Daniel Hawley. The latter was bom in the United States, where
he married Sarah Raymond. They came to Canada in 1812, and he was engaged in
the war of that time. He died in 1844, his wife having died about 1819. He was
possessed of a strong frame and a vigorous constitution. Of their children, Sands
Raymond, the first child born in Canada, was born September 1, 1812, and was ndsed
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 573
to farm life, which he always followed. In frame and constitution he partook of his
father's traits. He married Sarah Odell, a native of Ernestown, who came to Canada
in minor Ufe, where she yet lives, but she buried her husband on May 5, 1881. They
had seven children, viz., Catharine, George, Henry, Edward, Elsie, John and Ira, all
now heads of flEonilies. Of the number, George, the first son, was born in 1840, and
was raised to fiirm ' life, which he still follows, now owning a good farm of 45 acres.
He was married in January, 1871, to Mary Sumler, who was bom in 1849.' Two
children are the fruits of this union, viz., Anna L. and Arthur W.
EL YIN HILL, farmer, Paris P. O., was born near Hamilton in 1837 ; he is a son of
Amos Hill, who was bom in the State of Maine, in 1 798. He came to Canada in 1819,
settling near Hamilton, where he buried his first wife. He married widow Coudon,
daughter of John Cox, of Niagara ; she died in 1880, leaving five childran, viz., Bryant,
John, Elvin, Joseph and Stephen. Mr. Hill removed with his famQy to Brant County
in 1840, where he bought 500 acres of land, of which eight acres only were cleared.
After much toil and labour he put it all under cultivation, and at his death left a neat
competency for his family. Of his sons, Elvin was the third. He married Charlotte,
daughter of Charles Mitchell, who soon after died, leaving one child. Mr. Hill
married for his second wife Susan, daughter of James Miller. He now owns, and has
4mder good cultivation, 106 acres of land.
JOSEPH E. HILL, farmer, Paris P.O., was bora near Hamilton in 1840 ; he is a
son of Amos Hill, whose history appears, with that of his son Elvin, in this volume.
Our subject was brought up to farm life, and received a common school education. He
married Angeline, daughter of Thomas Osbay, by whom he had three children. Mr.
Hill owns 438 acres of the finest wheat-growing land in Paris Plains. In the year
1882 he reaped a harvest of 7,000 bushels of wheat. He devotes all of his time to
farming and stock-raising.
JOHN HOPE, Superintendent of the Bow Park Farm, Brantford Township, was
bom in' Cumberland, England, Jan. 3, 1845, and is a son of Edward Hope, a farmer by
occupation, and who married Frances Sharp, by whom he had three children, all living.
One brother came to Canada but returned home, and is now a farmer in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland. John Hope, the subject of this sketch, left England in July, 1865, and
came to Markham, Ont, where he engaged in farming, one year. From Markham he
went to Bourbon County, State of Kentucky, where he lived two years; from there he
migrated to Cass County, Missouri, and resided there two years also, and then returned
to England for one year. Again facing the western hemisphere, he next found his way
to Lake County, State of Illinois, and engaged in farming lor two years , thence back
to Markham, Ont., for five years. In July, 1877, he came to Brant County to assume
the superintendence of the cattle of the Canada West Farm Stock Association. In 1881
he wa3 also appointed manager of the farm, and he now controls both. Mr. Hope is
neutral in politics, and is a member of no society, as his time is fully taken up with
business, and he travels a great deal in the interests of the association.
THOMAS HOXJLDING, farmer, Newport, was bom in England, March 14, 1808,
and is the son of Thomas Houlding referred to in William Houlding's sketch. He came
to Canada in the fall of 1831, and settled in this county. He married Jan. 5th, 1836,
Elizabeth Carter, daughter of William and granddaughter of John Carter, natives of
Berkshire, England, the result of their union being twelve children, as follows: Qeorge,
bom June 14, 1838; William C, bom June 21, 1839, died Aug. 13, 1839 ; Ann and
Mary, bom July 3, 1840; Jane, born April 14, 1843; Thomas D., born July 7, 1844;
Elizabeth, bom Nov. 1, 1845 ; Margaret, born Feb. 14, 1847, died Aug. 22, 1848;
Martha E., bom Nov. 13, 1848 ; Sarah M., bom May 4, 1850, died Sept. 20, 1872 ;
Henry, bom Nov. 26, 1851; Joseph, bom Sept. 28, 1853. Mr. Houlding owns a fine
574 HISTORY OF BRANT COUKTT.
fiurm of 113 acres, four and a half miles from fche City of Brantford, irhich he fioms hi
excellent style. He also has some thorough-bred short-horn stock (registered), which
goes to prove him one of the enterprising farmers of the county. He and his family
belong to the Independent Church.
WILLIAM HOULDING, farmer, Newport, was bom Oct 9, 1816, and is a son ef
Thomas, grandson of Thomas, and great-grandson of William Houlding, a natiye of
Lancashire, England, who died in the land of his birth. The grandfather of our sub-
ject came to Canada in 1831, and settled in Brant County. He married Ann
Draper, also a native of England, and had seven children, viz., Th6mas, Ann, Betty,
and William, who are living, and Jane and Henry, now dead. William Houlding, of
whom this sketch is written, came to Canada from England in 1831, and married July
1st, 1848, Betty Birkett, daughter of William Birkett, of English descent The chU-
dien of this marriage number fourteen, as follows : Thomas, bom May 5, 1842 ; Wil.
liam, bom May 29, 1843 ; Ann, bom June 14, 1845 ; Ellen, bom Aug. 16, 1847;
James, bom May 15, 1849 ; Mary J., born March 15, 1851; Henry A., bom Dec. 31,
1853, died June 24, 1864; Bachel and Rebecca, bom April 8, 1855 (Rebecca died
April 10, 1875, and Rachel, July 25, 1876) ; Isadora, bom March 15, 1857 ; George,
bom Feb. 23, 1859 ; Charles D., bom Feb. 24, 1861 ; John A., bom July 27, 1865 ;
Martha E., bom March 31, 1867. Mr. Houlding owns a splendid farm of 160 acres
on the Grand River, four mUes below the City of Brantford, and is a prosperous farmer.
He and his family belong to the Independent Church.
AUGUSTUS HOWELL, farmer, Brantfoid P. 0., is a son of Isaac and grandson of
John Howell. The latter was bom in New Jersey, but in minor life came to Canada
and settled in the County of Wentworth, near Copetown, where he and wife both died
She was Rachel Kitchen, and bom in Canada. Tiieir family consisted of the follow-
ing children : the eldest, who was killed in his youth while shearing sheep, Isaac, Sarah,
Levi, John, William, Rachel and Hannah (twins), and the youngest, Lewis. Isaac,
the father of our subject, and the oldest with one exception, was bom in Went-
worth in 1812, and died in the County of Brant in 1877. He matured in his
native county, but in 1837 became a resident of the county in which he died, where he
had laboured for many years, and acquired a neat and comfortable home, having
cleared Lots 46, 42 and 43, of the first concession, in the Township of Brantford. He
was a man who never aspired to any public position, but was contented with the quiet
routine of farm life, which covered the period of his entire earthly existence. His
wife was Lucinda Wells, bom in the State of New York, in 1814, and died in Brant
County, Canada, in December, 1882. The children of Isaac and Lucinda were : Julia
(deceased), John K, Mary A. (deceased), Augustus, Rachel, Ada, Wellington, Lucinda
J. (deceased), and Frederick E. (deceased). Augustus is the fourth child, and was
bom in Brant County in 1844. He has always followed farming, and now owns 100
acres of good land on Lot 42 of Brantford Township, in the first concession. He
married Sarah A., daughter of George Chitenden ; she was bom and raised near Paris.
They have two children, viz., Eva Gertrode and Florence Edna.
ISAAC HOWELL, farmer, Paris P. O., was bom July 9th, 1818, at Ancaster, Ont.
He was a son of Garrett and Mary (Ogden) Howell, natives of the State of New
Jersey, who emigrated to Canada in 1810-12, and settled near what is now called
Ancaster, where they died, leaving six daughters and three sons. Isaac was the
second son, and was married January 19, 1847, to Harriett Waugh. They came to
Brant County in 1854, and settled near Paris, whero they still live. His family
consists of six children, vis, ; Marcia A., Alice E., Cordelia M., Franklin, James A^
and Herbert B. Mr. Howell owns 150 acres of improved land located near Paris,
and is successful ss a farmer.
BIOORAFHICAL SKETCHES. 575
JAMES IRELAND, farmer, Langford P. O., was bom January 15tb, 1833. Mr.
Ireland married August 14, 1859, Mary Jane (McMurry) Allen, daughter of Alex-
ander McMurry, of Ireland. Mrs. Ireland having no regard for her stepmother, came
•to Canada in 1850. She worked in the Counties of Wentworth and Brant until her
marriage with Mr. Henry Allen, a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. Allen died January
22, 1859, leaving a family of two children, viz, : Jacob, bom November 15, 1854 ;
Phoebe, bom June 30, 1857, died July 15, 1881. Elizabeth Ireland, eldest daughter
of James Ireland, was bom April 15, 1860, died June 25th, 1860 ; Martha Ann was
bom April 15, 1861 — she was married on Christmas Day, 1882, to Dennis Legacy, of
Norwich, Ontario ; Robert George was bom Febraary 19, 1863 ; Charles James was
bom January 3rd, 1865 ; Thomas William was bom January 28, 1867 ; John
McMurry was bom October 28, 1868 ; Richard was bom May 5, 1870 ; Mary Jane
Elizabeth was bora May 20th, 1874. Mr. and Mrs. Ireland now live on the line between
Onondaga and Brantford. They are doing a fair farming business, and are highly
respected.
FRANCIS IRWIN, farmer, Brantford, is a great-great-grandson of Abraham
Irwin, who fought under King William. The great-grandfather of our subject was
Francis Irwin, who was bora in County Armagh, Ireland, where he was through life a
farmer ; he died in his native country. The grandfather of our subject was Francis
also, and was bom in the last mentioned county, where he married ; but in about
twenty years his wife died, leaving nine children, the eldest of which came to America
about 1820, and has not since been heard of. In 1820 Francis, with three sons and
five daughters, came to Canada, settling at Ancaster, in the County of Wentworth,
where he died. Of his family, only two now survive, but many relatives are in
Wentworth County. William, the father of Francis (our subject), was born in the
County Armagh, Ireland, November 15, 1793, but since 1820 has been a resident of
Canada, and since 1836 of the County of Brant, being the first white owner of Lot 23,
of the Ist concession in Brantford Township. He cleared' this land from a dense
wilderness to its present state, making his home by starting with little or no means
at all. He was married to Martha Qua, who was also bom in Ireland in 1794,
and died in the County of Brant, March 31, 1870. Their children were six in number.
Three sons died in early life. One daughter is the wife of George Pike ; one remains
with our subject (unmarried) ; and Francis, whose name heads this sketch, has always
chosen the path of single lite also. He, as well as his brothers and sisters, were bom
on the farm where he now lives. He cultivates 127 acres, and raises some ''short-
homed " cattle, as well as the '' Leicester " sheep.
JOSEPH JARVIS, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in 1834, and is a son of
Joseph Jarvis, a native of Leicestershire, England, where he died. His wife, Mary Jarvis,
died in 1845, leaving eight children, three of whom came to Canada ; Joseph came in
1859, and soon after began work for Mr. David Christy. By industry and economy
he soon accumulated means enough to rent land. In 1863 he married Eliza Brown,
and in J 877 he bought his present farm of 100 acres, which is well improved. They
have a family of eight children, viz. : John Henry, George Lewis, William Brown,
Charles Andrew, Thomas Edward, Mary Alice, Charlotte Ann, and Ellen Josephine.
G. B. JONES, apiculturist, Brantford P.O. Mr. Jones is a native of Toronto, where
for a time he was a student of architecture, after which he spent eighteen months at the
Agricultural College, Guelph. He then engaged with W. A Jones, of Beeton, in
Simcoe County, in the study of bee culture. In October, 1882, he settled on the old
homestead of Captain Brant, next the Mohawk Church, where he established the
Black bume Apiary, and commenced, in connection therewith, the manufacture of bee-
keepers' supplies, making any style of hive, but using and having constantly on hand
676 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
a sawdust-packed hive adapted to the Langstrath frame, known as the ^* Blackbunie
Hive." He raises and sells bees, but makes a specialty of pure honey both in the comb
and extracted. His stock of supplies consists chiefly of hives, frames, sections, smokers,
extractors, comb foundation, shipping crates, honey cans and jars, labels, etc., etc., and
literature of the apiary.
JOSEPH KENDRIOK, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Wentworth County,
in 1826, and is a son of Ira B. Kendrick, who was bom near Toronto, in 1792. He
followed the carpenter trade, and came to -Wentworth in 1828, where he manied
Margaret Book. In 1837 he removed to Port Huron, where he died in 187C. Their
children were Sarah, Joseph and John B. ; Joseph Kendrick married in 1852 Miss
Maigaret Lampkin, a native of England, who was bom in February, 1833. They have
had six cliildren, namely, Elizabeth, Ira B., George, Alfred, Usual 0., and Alem K.,
deceased. Mr. Kendrick holds 321 acres of valuable farming land, 100 of which lies
in Wentworth County.
JOHX KER, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in England, December 4, 1819, and
is a son of WiUiam Ker, who was bom in Cumberland County, England, in 1772.
He learned cabinet-making in early life, and in 1816 married Maiy Dobinson, who
was a native of the same place. They came to Canada in 1835, settling in Brantford,
where he bought his farm at the Indian land sale in 1835. He, with the aid of his
family, made one of the finest farms of the county out of it : it is situated in the
valley of the Grand River. He had three sons, viz.: William, John and Robert, all
residing in this county. John Ker married, in 1856, Miss Elizabeth Holme. They
are the parents of five children. Mr. Ker has a good &rm of 170 acres, and carries
on stock-raising principally.
MRS. MARY KERR, widow, Brantford Township, a native of the SUte of Penn-
sylvania, was bqm near the city of Philadelphia, Nov. 17th, 1797. She came to Canada
with her father, Benjamin Kiter, in 1807, and settled in Ancaster Township, County
of Wentworth. She was married, March 18th, 1817, to George Henry Kerr, who was
bom AprU 2f th, 1 794. Her husband's father, Robert Kerr, was a Highland Scotch-
man, and surgeon in the British army during the American Revolutionary War. Her
mothec was of German descent, and a daughter of Nicholas Kizer. Mrs. Kerr's family
were seven in number, viz.: Walter, bom Dec. 7th, 1817, died May 5th, 1872 : Wil-
liam, born May 2nd, 1820 ; George H., born April 30th, 1823 j Robert J., bom SepL
4th, 1826, died July 19th, 1854 ; Obed C, bom Jan. 17, 1829 ; Mary J., bom July
11th, 1831, died May 28th, 1882; Isabella, bom Jan. 9tb, 1833, died April 4th,
1854. Walter was a man of great strength, and stood 6 feet 10} inches in his stock-
ings. Mary J. was the wife of Col. Hiram Dickie. The subject of this biography
came to this county about 1834, and settled on the farm where she now resides, and,
with her mental faculties, she is enjoying a green old age. Her farm comprises 354
acres of very fine land along the Grand River, about a mile west of Brantford. She is
an adherent of the Church of England.
JAMES KING, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Wentworth County,
April 10, 1820, and settled in this county February 22, 1860. He is a son of James
and grandson of Charles King, who, some time during the last century, settled in
Wentworth County, where he died. James, his son, was born May 12, 1789, and
married Susan Gingery, a native of Pennsylvania, who had previously come to Canada
with her father. They had nine children, of whom John, James, Abraham and Susan
now survive, and Charles, Sarah, Nancy, William and George, are dead. The father
died February 4, 1840. James King, of whom we write, married May 20, 1856,
Ann Hedley, daughter of Robert and granddaughter of Thomas Hedley, a native
of England. Robert Hedley came to Canada about the year 1834, locating first
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 577
in the County of Wentworth and later in Haldimand County, where he died. By
the above marriage there were six children, viz., Joehua, bom February 14, 1857 ;
Sarah £., born October 7, 1858; Robert 0., bom October 23, 1860; Adeline, bom
December 17, 1863 ; Mary Helena, bom December 2, 1865 ; Isabella, bom December
20, 1869. The educational advantages received by Mr. King were from the common
school. He owns a first class farm of eighty acres, well stocked, six miles south of
Brantford. Beligion, Canada Methodist.
ABRAM KINNARD, farmer, Mohawk P.O., was bom January 4, 1821, in Aacaster,
County of Wentworth ; he is a son of Sela and a grandson of Abram and Catheiine
(Minor) Kinnard. Sela Kinnard came to Canada with his father, settling in Monck
County. He married Julia Ann Daniels, and had a family of six children, yiz., Kelvin,
Abram, John D., Catherine, Andrew and Wesley. Abram Kinnard married, May 17,
1853, Sarah Faii-child, who was bom Feb. 6, 1831, in Brant Co. She was a daughter
of Timothy and a granddaughter of Isaac Fairchild, after whom the Fairchild Creek
was named. They had four children, viz., Elbem S., bom August 24, 1854 ; Timothy
L , bom August 5, 1862 ; Calvin, bom November 9, 1865 ; Benjamin, born August
29, 1867. Sir. Kinnard was educated in New York State, fle followed the ai-chi-
tectural business about thirty years ; afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits ; and in
18^5 came to Brant County, settling on his present premises, consisting of 107^ acres
of fine farming land.
JOHN KINNEY, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of William Kinney, who
resides in St Greorge. Our subject is the fifth of eight children, and was bom in
South Dumfries in 1840. He was raised to farm life, and acquirad a common school
education. His father received the benefit of his labours until Febmary 8, 1865, when
he married, and soon after settled on his present farm of ninety-eight acres. His home
is well improved and under good cultivation. For a time he devoted considerable
time to raising stock, but more recently is turning his attention to buying and selling
horses. Mr. Kinney and wife have a family of five children, viz., Mary E., Sarah A.,
Jamee T., William F., and John K. Mrs. Kinney was bom in South Dumtries in
1846, and is Mary, daus^hter of Firman Howell, one of the pioneers.
EDWIN E. LANGS, Cainsville, is a grandson of Jacob and Elizabeth (Fowler)
Langs and Major John and Elizabeth (Gage) Westbrook, and a son of John and
Sarah (Westbrook) Langs, the former bom in Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania,
August 16, 1799, and died March 30, 1855 ; and the latter born Febraary 7, 1800, and
died April 5, 1880. They were the parents of ten children, viz., Martha, Nelson,
Squire, Elizabeth, S. W. Wallace, Major S., Edwin R., Scynthia V., George A., and
Livina. Our subject was bom in the Township of Brantford, County of Brant, Pro-
vince of Ontario, on the 2nd September, 1836. On February 4, 1863, he married Miss
Annie Duncan, who was bom September 7, 1841 ; she was a daughter of William and
Elizabeth (Simpson) Duncan, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. To this union six children
have' been bom, namely : W. Orpheus A., bom Dec. 2, 1863 ; Mary E., bom Fob. 28,
1866, died June 5, 1867; Major H.. born Marvh 20, 1869; Annie A., bom March 7,
1872; Clara R., bom Sept. 7, 1876 ; and Edwin R, bora November 25, 1881. Mr.
Langs received a fair education, and devoted some twenty-five years of his life to
farming. He is a Reformer in politics, and in 1878 was appointe^jTustice of the
Peace, an office he still occupies.
NELSON LANGS, farmer, Langford P.O., was bom in 1827, in Brant County ;
he is a son of John and a grandson of Jacob Langs, one of the first settlers of North-
umberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1807 he removed to Canada, purchasing a large
tract of land, densely covered with forest Here he shared the perils, hardships and
privations of a pioneer's life, oonverluu; ttis unbroken wilderness into productive fields.
678 HISTORY OF BRANT CX)UNTY.
He had eight children, John, the father of our subject, being the youngest^ He
bom in 1799, in Pennsylvania, and at the age of eight years settled with his parents
in this county. He followed fanning through life, and at his death he owned 270
acres of land. He died of small-pox in 1855. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Major
John Westbrook, whose history appears in this volume. She was bom in 1800, in
Brant County, and died in 1880, leaving twelve children, three of whom are dead.
Nelson, the eldest, was bom on the old homestead, and has always resided in the
vicinity of his birth. He married, in 1854, Eliza Sands, who was bom in Halton
County in 1828. Mr. Langs owns 130 acres of land, situated near Langford, and has
four children, viz., Martin, Susan, Ella and Flint.
ALFRED LA YCOCK, deceased » was a native of Lancashire, England, where he was
bom about the year 1824, and was a son of James Laycock, a dealer in dry goods.
Mr. Laycock, our subject, was reared in his native land, and in about the year
1842 he came to Brantford, Ont., and soon after entered into employment with
Ignatius Cockshutt, one of the pioneer merchants of Brantford, By strict attention
to hiB employer's business, he gained steady promotion to positions of trust and
honour. He purchased in course of time 140 acres of land on the Mount Pleasant
Eoad, near Brantford, and in February, 1850, was united in marriage to Jane
Cockshutt, a sister of his employer. Mr. Laycock still continued his duties in Mr.
Cockshutt's store until May, 1850, when a severe attack of inflammation of the lungs
proved fatal to him. He was interred at the burial place near the farm. His widow
still resides at the homestead, 100 acres of which is farmed by George Houlding for
the widow. Mr. Laycock was a member of Farringdon Independent Church, as is
also his widow. The latter is a quiet, unostentatious lady, and from a sense of duty
and benevolence to the unfortunate, has fitted up, and maintains at her own expense,
a large building on the farm, filled with orphan children. This one act of charity
alone has developed for her in the community and among her acquaintances a very
great amount of respect and admiration, while her good deeds and kind acts make
her name a household word and her presence a blessing.
NICHOLAS LEE, farmer, Harrisburg P.O. Nicholas Lee, the father of oar
subject, was a native of Saxony, Crermany, bom in 1792, and died in Brant County,
Ont., in 1879. He matured in bis native county, where he followed farming. WhUe
in Germany he married, and in 1834 he, wife and three children, came to Canada
and settled near St. Geoige, where he followed farming the remainder of his life,
with the exception of a few short intervals that he engaged in store and tavern
keeping. About 1850 he buried his first wife, who was the mother of three children,
but his widow, or second wife, still survives. He was a man of strong mind and
constitution, and transformed many acres from a wilderness to productive fields. Of
^is children — Magdalena, Mary A., and Nicholas, our subject — the two eldest are de-
ceased, and Nicholas is the only one left to give the untold history of the above family.
He was bom in Saxony, Germany, in 1821, but since thirteen years of age has been a
resident of Brant County, where he now owns 136 acres on Lots 47 and 48, of the first
concession of Brantford Township. His farm & well improved, and is mostly the
result of his own efforts. In 1846 he married Julian Lane, who cUed in 1852, leaving
two children, who are also deceased. Mr. Lee's second wife was Mary Pepper, a
native of Canada, who died May 21, 1882, leaving a family of six children. Both
of his deceased companions were members of the Baptist Church, to which he also
belonged until recently, when he connected himself witii the Methodists.
W. H. LEE, JuNB., fruit grower, CainsviUe P.O., is a son of W. H. Lee, Senr., of
Burford Township, where our subject was bom Maroh 5, 1846. He was raised to
agricultural life, and enjoyed a common school education. In early life he began fruit
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 679
growing in his natiye township, where he oontinnied until the fall of 1876, when he
honght his present property of 25 acres nter Cainsville, where he cultivates all kinds
of hemes, among which he makes a specialty of strawbenies. His saccessful ex-
perience in the coonty justly places him among its leading horticulturists. He was
married September 11, 1867, to Emm i, daughter of David Misener. The issue of
this union is eight children. He and wife belong to the Canada Methodist Church,
and he had for a time been Superintendent of the Cainsville Sabbath school. ' The
grandparents of W. H., Junr., were Samuel and Anna (Shaver) Lee. Samuel was
bom in the State of Maryland in 1786, and died in Saltfleet Township, Ont, in 1848.
He was, at the tender age of six years, brought by his parents to Canada, where his
earthly cares ended. He, in the latter part of his life, embraced the Christian religion.
His occupation was fanning through life. His wife, Anna, daughter of John and
Margaret Shaver, was bom in the State of New Jersey, April 15, 1791. When three
years old her parents removed into Canada as refugees, walking the entire distance,
her father carrying an axe and a bundle of bedclothes, and her mother a child six
months old, while the oldest child lode on horseback and held Anna before her. They
settled in the Township of Ancaster, Wentworth County, and at the time their only
neighbours were the Indians and the wild denizens of the forest. They erected a rude
hut, and life commenced in earnest. Under such surroundings Anna matured, but
after a long, useful, and faithful life in the walk of the church she, on December 13,
1875, fell asleep in death, and her remains rest in Stony Creek Cemetery.
MORRIS LOUNSBURY, lumber manufacturer, Mount Vernon, was bom in
Saltfleet Township, Wentworth County, Nov. 23, 1831, and is a son of William B.
and Sarah (Corey) Lounsbury. His father, William B., was bom in Queen's County,
New Brunswick, and came to Canada about 1823, settling in Wentworth County.
He married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Corey. Their children are Charlotte, Susan
A., John, Edward, Harriet, Morris and Sarah. Morris Lounsbury received a com-
mon education, was brought up a farmer, and came to Brant County in 1845. He
married, February 9th, 1851, Sarah Ann, bom March 3, 1831, daughter of Samuel
Tapley, of Brant County. They have a family of six children, viz.: William R, bom
April 9th, 1853, who, on the eve of his marriage to an estimable young lady, was
killed in what is known as the Dock Street Building accident, St. John, New Bruns-
wick, May 3, 1879 ; Elmer T., bom January dth, 1855 ; Amanda J., bom August
5th, 1858, died May 7th, 1876 ; Lydia A., bom May 16th, 1861 ; Clara, bom July
28, 1863 ; Mary, bom June 29, (866, died October 25th, 1876. Mr. Lounsbuiy
built the mUl now run on premises owned by him in Brant County, in 1872. His
farm here consists of 75^ acres, with an additional farm in Burford Township of 400
acres recently purchased ; of this 80 acres are under a high state of cultivation, and
250 of valuable primeval forest. He is a member of the Freemasons and of the
A. O. XJ. W.; is a Justice of the Peace, and a member of the Episcopal Methodist
Church. Edward Lounsbury, a brother of Morris, has been for several years a promi-
nent minister of the above church, and has filled all the official positions of that
church excepting that of bishop. John Lounsbury, the grandfather of our subject,
was a native of Brooklyn, N.T., where he married Charlotte Dingy, a native of New
York. In 1791 they emigrated to St John, N. B., and afterwards located in Queen's
County, N. B., where he died at the age of 59 years. His wife lived to reach the age of
88 years. They had a family of eight children — three boys and live girls.
W. J. LOVEJOY, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of John Lovejoy, who was
bom on the present site of Columbus, Ohio, in 1800, and was of English parentage.
His &ther and mother died near Cleveland, Ohio. When a young man John came
to Canada, stopping at Ancaster. His boyhood days were spent in his father's woollen-
680 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
mill, which gave him a good knowledge of the business. In consequence of this
knowledge, soon after reaching Canada an opportunity presented itself for him to
become a partner in such an establishment at Hamilton. While thus profitably engaged
he became acquainted with, and in 1852 married, Charlotte L., eldest daughter of the
late Dr. Wm. Case, of that city. They soon after settled in Brantford, then a village
belonging to the Six Nation Indians. Ere long the Indians surrendered the site of
the town, and John being one of the first settlers with some means, became quite a
property owner. His influence and ability gave him rank among the leading citizens.
He was an early hotel proprietor, and also owned and operated the first line of stages
between Brantford and Hamilton. About 1837 there were several of the best build-
ings on Coibome and Market Streets owned by him, as well as a store and other public
housea He finally settled near the Mohawk Church, where he owned a lai^ tract
of land. In 1854 he erected a large brick house, now owned by our subject. Abont
this time he became a large stockholder in. the Brantford Road Company, with whidi
he was connected until near his death, his son W. J. succeeding him in tiie enterprise.
He died in 1858, leaving behind him marks of a good business man. Of his ei^t
children, three died in early life and five are now Hving, of whom W. J., the eldest,
was bom February 22nd, 1826, while his parents were temporarily living in Simcoe
County, Ontario. From infancy he has been in Brant County limits, where he was
educated, and where he now owns a fine house just outside the corporation limits of
the city. He at one time took up the study of law, but finding it veiy confining, he
thought medicine would afford more exercise, in which he was engaged at the death
of his father. This sad circumstance called him home from coll^;e, and he never
completed his course. Since then he has enjoyed the quiet routine of farming and
looking after his property. In 1862 he married Jane L., daughter of the late Joseph
Gt)rdon, of Brantford. She was bom in Portland Square, London, England, in 1828.
Mr. Lovejoy and wife are both members of the English Church. They have two
children — Gertrude and Josephine.
HENRT LOWES, deceased, is a son of John and Jane (Herbert) I^wes, both
natives of England, where they lived and died. Henry was bom in England in 1808.
While in minor life he learned the carpenter trade, which he followed considerably
after coming to Canada. In 1832, after spending three years in Whitby, he came to
Brant County, where he became possessed of a farm of twenty-one acres, besides some
city property. He was manied to Christina Gibson, of Yorkshire, England ; she was
two years his senior, and died in Brantford in May, 1880, having had eleven children,
four of whom died in early life ; those living are William, Ann, Ruth, John, Henry,
Mary J., and James. Mr. Lowes took an active part during the Rebellion of 1837-8,
belonging to the troop]under Major Winnet. He departed this life on March 1st, 1883,
aged 74 years.
FREDERICK LUCK, Brantford P.O., stock-raiser and farmer, was bom in Goud-
hurst, Kent, England, in 1819, and is a son of Wm. Luck, who was also bom in Eng-
land. He married about 1 770, and his wife died, leaving one child. His second wife
was Susan Foreman, of England; she died in 1848, and Mr. Luck in 1829. He
left twelve children, six sons and six daughters, of whom Frederick was the fourth
son. Frederick settled in this county in 1857, where he now owns 200 acres of fine
lands, situated on Grand River. He manied in 1842 Ann Osborne, sister of Daniel
Osborne, of South Dumfries. They have three children, viz., Frances, Daniel, and
Thomas. Mr. Luck has acted as Trustee in his vicinity for three terms, and is a man
of good social standing.
THOMAS G. LUDLOW, Mount Vernon P.O., was bom May 29, 1839, and is a
son of Samuel Ludlow, who came to this county in 1830 from Queen's County, Ire-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 581
land, settling near the old Mohawk Church, where he taught for a number of jears in
the Mohawk Institute. Thomas is one of seven children, viz., Ann L., who married
Jacob Langs, living now in Norfolk County ; William IS., living in firant County ;
Bichard, living in Detroit, Michigan; Sarah; Hannah, married Samson Day; and
Alice Baker, who lives in Brant County. He married first Agnes, daughter
of George Martin, a native of Scotland, now living in Brantford County. They
became the parents of nine children^ viz., Qeorge W., bom July 16, 1868 ; Elizabeth,
bom February 16, 1860; Josephine, born August 15, 1861, now living in Manitoba;
Alexander, bom June 21, 1863, died April 2, 1864 ; Eichard T., bom April 17, 1865 ;
Ernest T., born January 5, 1867, died July 27, 1867; Flora A., bom Febmary 22,
1869, died June 28, 1869; Morley W., born Febmary 22, 1869; Austin G., bom
October 4, 1870, died September 12, 1872. He married again, Febmary 12, 1873,
Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew and granddaughter of James Sharp. She having
previously married James Campbell, had three children, named Palestrello J., Edith
A., and Lachlin T., all of whom are dead. Our subject leamed the blacksmith trade,
at which he worked twenty years. He subsequently became a farmer, and is now in
the mercantile business. Mr. Ludlow is a member of the Canada Methodist Church,
and superintendent of the Sabbath school.
WILLIAM S. LUDLOW, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of Samuel and Eliza
Ludlow, both natives of Ireland, where he acquired a fair education. They both came
to Lower Canada, where they married, and in 1834 they moved to what is now Brant
County, settling at the Mohawk Village, where he taught school several years. He
was also a farmer and blacksmith. He died in Michigan, and his widow now lives in
Norfolk County, Ontario. Their children were Ann, William S., Richard C, Sarah
J., Hannah, Thomas G. and Alice L. William S., is the eldest son and was bom at
the Mohawk Village in 1837 ; he has been a resident of the County of Brant since
1864, owning his present farm of 85 acres of good soil, well tilled. In December,
1859, he married Mary, daughter of John Berry, to whom the following children have
been bom : Thomas J., William H. K, Jonathan, Samuel, Luke, Mary E. and Aimer.
William S. and wife belong to the Methodist Church, but his parents belonged to the
Church of England.
DUNCAN MAHQUIS, physician, Mohawk P.O. Among the representative men
of Brantford lownship we mention the name of Dr. Marquis, Mount Pleasant Village.
He was bom in Argyleshire, Scotland, December 6, 1842, and is a son of John Marquis,
who was a native of the same shire, and by occupation a shoemaker. His wife was
Eliza McDermid, a native of Perthshire, Scotland. They lived together until 1850,
when his death severed their unioru In 1851, the widow and five children came to
Caledonia, N.Y., and one year later to Brant County, Ontario. Here she married
Francis Fairchilds, son of Isaac Fairchilds, a pioneer. Of Eliza Marquis' five children
two are now living, the Doctor and his sister. His mother and stepfather live in Oak-
land Township, on the old Fairchild homestead. The subject of this sketch was raised
mostly in Canada, and embraced the educational privileges in the Grammar School of
Mount Pleasant. In 1863, he entered the Victoria Medical College of Toronto, from
which he graduated in 1865. He immediately located at Mount Pleasant, where he
has since been, and has succeeded well in his professional career. He is a member of
the Presbyterian Church of Mount Pleasant, in which he is accompanied by his wife ;
and as a member of the Brant County Medical Association he stands well, and has
served the society as President one year. On May 11th, 1871, he was married to Eliza,
daughter of George Bryce, of Mount Pleasant, and a sister of Prof. George Bryce,
of Winnipeg, aud of Dr. Peter H. Bryce, Secretary of Board of Health of Ontario, and
a resident physician of Toronto. Dr. Marquis and wife are the parents of five children,
four of whom are living.
582 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
JOHN McCAUSLAND, fanner, Brantford Township, is a son of James and gnnd-
son of John McCaosland, a native of the County Antrim, Ireland. James, his son,
came to Canada in 1838, locating in this county. He remained two years in the
country, and returned to his native land, where he died at the age of nearly 73. He
had a family of six children, of whom two, John and Nancy, are living, and Matilda,
James, Alexander and William, are dead. John McCausland was bom in Ireland,
June 28, 1804, and came to this Province in 1829, settling on the farm where he now
resides. Before leaving the Green Isle, he married, May 8, 1829, Mary Haggan,
daughter of John Haggan, and has five of a family, viz.: Jane, bom March 8, 1830 ;
James, bom Dec. 31, 1832 ; John, bom Feb. 26, 1834 ; William, bora May 16, 1836 ;
Alexander, bora May 26, 1839. His second son, John, resides with him. He married,
June 8, 1868, Sarah Ann Fortune, daughter of James Fortune, a native of the United
States. By this union there are four children — ^Margaret, bom May 30, 1871 ;f Wil-
liam, born Nov. 14, 1873; Elizabeth Maud, bom Sept. 4, 1878 ; tfames Alexander,
bom July 23, 1881. The subject of this biography is a Freemason of the old Irish
Order, and a Methodist. He has prospered in the land of his adoption, and is now
the owner of an excellent farm of 100 acres, a few miles south of Brantford, and is in
independent circumstances.
DAVID McCORMICK, farmer, Paris P.O., is a son of Robert McCormick, who
was born in Scotland in 1804, and died in the County of Brant November 1, 1880.
He matured in his native country, where he married Elizabeth McGhie, who was bom
in Scotland April 7, 1808, and died in the County of Brant, Canada, July 28, 1855.
In 1842 Robert and wife, with seven children, emigrated to Canada, settling near
Paris, where he took a lease on a farm for twenty-seven years. He was a farmer
through life, and took a deep interest in educational affairs ; was repeatedly a school
trustee, and managed to give his family a good education. He was through life a
stout, hearty man. He and wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. Their
twelve children were : Isabelle, Elizabeth, John, Robert, William, James, Thomas,
David, Zachary C, Alexander G. H., Samuel and Henry. All are now living, and
Zachary C. is now teaching in Detroit, Michigan. David, our subject, was the first
child of his parents bom in Canada, in the year 1843. He was raised to farm life
near Paris, where he enjoyed the benefit of good schools. On December 28, 1882, he
married Mary, daughter of James Randall. She was bom in Pans in 1856. She and
David are members of the Presbyterian Church.
DI ARMID McDIARMID, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Scotland, was
bom March 16, 1827, came to Canada in 1852, and settled in this county. He is a
son of Archibald and grandson of Duncan McDiarmid, of Perthshire, Scotland, both
of whom died in their native land, the former in May, 1846, aged 74, and the latter at
about^the age of 70 years. Archibald McDiarmid married Helen McFarkne, daughter of
Dugald McFarlane, and had eleven children, of whom Malcolm, Kate, Angus and
Archibald are dead, and Hugh, Diarmid, Donald, Mary, Eliza, Margaret and Helen,
still survive. Diarmid McDiarmid, of whom this sketch is written, married March 17,
1858, Anna Bella Dawson, daughter of Alexander Dawson, also a native of Scotland.
Their children number eight, as follows : Archibald, Jessie, Eliza, Alexander, Helen,
Mary, Annabella and Margaret. The family are attendants of th« Presbyterian
Church. Mr. McDiarmid has prospered in his adopted country, and now owns a fine
farm of 84 acres within six miles of Brantford, upon which he has a number of excel-
lent thorough-bred stock.
ARCHIBALD McEWEN, farmer, Township of Brantford, was bom in Argyle>
shire, Scotland, in Feb., 1805, and is a son of Peter McEwen, also a native of Scot-
land, and who died when his son, the subject of this sketch, was an infant. Peter
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 583
McEwen married Annabel McFarlane, also Scotch, and they became the parents of
two children, a son and daughter, the latter being dead. Mrs. P. McEwen was married
the second time to Archibald Campbell, by whom thej had three children, a son and
twoi daughters, the latter two now living. The mother died about 20 years ago in
Scotland. Archibald McEwen was reared in Scotland, and when 25 years old, came
to Canada, making a six weeks' stay in Montreal, en route for Mt Pleasant, Brant
County. Abram Cook, at that time a merchant of the latter place, brought Archibald
with him from Montreal, and had him in his employment till he became a partner in
the business, and the name of the firm became Cook & McEwen. Sometime after-
wards they dissolved partnership, and Mr. McE ^en commenced business on his own
account, which he carried on for a few years. He then engaged in firming, and
bou^t the farm he is now on, to which he has from time to time added, until he is
now proprietor of farms aggregating 575 acres. Mr. McEwen is a Conservative in
politics, and, with his family, a Presbyterian. He was for many years Reeve of the
Township of Brantford, and Warden of Brant County for one year. The electors of
the Township of Brantford presented him with a b^utif ully embossed address and a
gold-headed ebony cane, with the following inscription engraved thereon: ''Presented
to Archibald McEwen, Esquire, by the Electors of the Township of Brantford, Feby.
20th, 1880." On Oct. 7, 1839, he married Agnes Kinnear, of Glasgow, Scotbind, by
whom he had nine children, of whom probably eight survive (six living in Brant
County), viz.: Peter, a farmer in Oakland Township; William Ceorge, also a farmer
in Oakland Township ; Archibald, a stock-dealer in Texas ; Marion, at home ; Anna-
bel, at home ; John and Alexander at home working the farm, and Eobert, in the
Island of Madas^ascar, where he is likely to make his future home.
DUNCAN McEWEN, farmer, Brantford Township, wbs bom in Scotland, April
9, 1842, and came to Canada with his father in 1854. They settled in this county.
He is a son of John, and grandson of Archibald McEwen. The former was bom in
1786, and married in due course Mary McLaughlin, daughter of Dugald McLaughlin,
and had a family of six, viz., Dugald, John and Duncan now living, and Archibald,
Peter and Mary, dead. Duncan McEwen married, Sept. 26th, 1871, Anne Middleton,
daughter of Martin, granddaughter of William, and great-granddaughter of William
Middleton M^;gait, also natives of Scotland. They have four children, as foUows :
Mary, bom August 25, 1872 ; Martin William, bom Aug. 13, 1874; Elizabeth, bom
April 26, 1877 ; John Ai^bald, bom Dec. 19, 1882. Mr. McEwen has found his
adopted country congenial to his spirit of enterprise, and now owns a well stocked
farm of 100 acres of fine land, six miles south of the city. He was elected Municipal
Councillor for his township, which position he occupied for one year.
DANIEL McINTYEE, farmer, Brantford P.O.— bom in Wentworth County, Ont. ,
Nov. 27th, 1835— came to Brant County in 1842 with his father, William Mclntyre,
who was bom in Lincoln County, Dec 24th, 1797. He married Phoebe, daughter of
Able Land, who was bom in Wentworth County, January 26th, 1800, and grand-
daughter of Bobert and Phoebe (Scott) Land, of English descent. The Mclntyres were of
Scotch descent Eobert Land left New Jersey about the time of the Revolution ; he had
been shot, and his wife, supposing him to have been killed, fled to New Brunswick in
despair. He, supposing them killed, came to Niagara, thence to Ancaster, where he
cleared land and sowed one bushel of wheat, the first sown in that section. After
several years his wife one day came to his premises with her family well grown up,
having walked from New Brunswick. They lived and died much respected, and some
of their descendants live in Hamilton to this day. Mr. Mclntyre was one of nine
children, viz. : Elizabeth, bom May 28th, 1826 ; Abel, born January 5th, 1827; James,
bom March 28th, 1830 ; Robert, bom January 4th, 1832, died May, 1870 ; Samuel,
584 HISTORY OF BBANT COUNTY.
bom September 2nd, 1835 ; John, bom November 10th, 1838 ; Louisa, bom May 7th,
1841 ; Mary M., born September 22nd, 1843, died October 7ih, 1845. Daniel mai^
ried, November 13th, 1861, Abigail Frazee, born November 19th, 1835, daoghter of
Thomas Frazee, whose biography appears in this work. He received in early life a
common school education, learned the waggon-maker's trade, bat has chiefly devoted his
time to farming. He is a Beformer, and owns 86 acres of land, 76 of which are
beautifully situated on Mount Pleasant Street, commanding a good view of Brantford.
The situation is best known as Back Street of Mount Pleasant
DANIEL W. McINTYRE, farmer, Brantford P.O., was born August 12th, 1855,
and IB a son of Eobert and Catharine (Frazee) Mclntyre, of both of whom a biography
appears in this work. His father was bom January 4th, 1832, and was married Oct
12th, 1854, to Catharine Frazee. They had four children, named Daniel W., Ellen Li,
Maiy M., and Emma 0. Daniel Mclntyre married, December 1st, 1880, Alice A
(Secord), who was bom August 26th, 1859 ; she was the daughter of David and
granddaughter of Solomon and Mary Secord. H^r mother's name was Sarah, daughter
of Allen and Elizabeth (Huntsman) Simmerman. He has a family of two children —
Maud K, bom September 4th, 1881 ; Elmer F., bom December 20th, 1882. Mr.
Mclntyre owns a farm consisting of 115 acres, 100 of which are under cultivation.
JOHN McINTrRE, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Perthshire, Scot-
land, was bom in April, 1803, and with his father came to Canada in the year 1823,
settling in this county. He was a son of John Mclntyre, who married Jeanette
McNichol, also a native of Scotland. They had a family of eight children, of whom
only two are living, John and Catharine ; those dead being Peter, Nichol, Bobert,
Eleanor, Elizabeth, and an infant The father died in Brant County. John, of whom
we write, married August 7th, 1820, Lovice Burtch, daughter of Eadie Burtch, a native
of Wales, who emigrated to America previous to the Revolutionary War, and whose
loyalty to the British Crown necessitated his removal from the new formed States. He
settled in this county, where he died. The family of our subject were Olive, bom Dec.
23rd, 1825 ; Jeanette, born March 6th, 1828 ; Eleanor, bom April 19th, 1830 ; Eadie,
bom August 25th, 1832 ; Catharine, bom Maich 15th, 1835 ; John W., born Oct 15th,
1837 ; David, bom April 1 9th, 1840 ; Margaret, bora July 2nd, 1842 ; Peter J., bom
Feb. 4th, 1845 : WiUiam W., born Oct 14th, 1847 ; Elizabeth Ann, bom Feb. 13th,
1850; Marian, bom. June 9th, 1852. Peter J. married, Dec. 3rd, 1877, Sarah,
daughter of Bobert and granddaughter of Jeremiah To wnsend, a native of Wales. The
fjEimily adhere to the Baptist denomination. Mr. Mclntyre has prospered in the land of
his adoption, and now owns a superior farm of 200 acres, six miles from the City of
Brantford.
JOHN MoMlLLEN, farmer and blacksmith, Alberton P.O., is a son of George D.
and a grandson of Daniel McMillen. The latter was bom in Scotland in 1755, but
crossed the ocean for the American continent in 1775. One year later began the
greatest contest in the annals of history, but he remained loyal to King George III.,
and served throughout that great struggle. As a U. £. L. he subsequently came to
Canada, settling near Kingston, where he married Catharine Detler. They lived at
Kingston many years, where his wife died, and where he opened the first store of the
place. He died near Belleville. They had five girls and two sons ; of the latter, George,
the youngest, was born about 1801, near Kingston, where he was raised, and married
Louisa Weatherhead. He was through life a blacksmith, and died near Belleville in
1845, and his widow now survives, aged 77 years ; she was bom in Dublin, Ireland,
but came to Canada wheu ten years old. She and her husband had a family of seven
children, viz., Ann, Daniel, John, George, Bobert, Frances and Emily, three of whom
are living, of which John is the oldest^ and was bom in 1835, near Kingston. He
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 585
learned his trade in fielleyille, and came to Wentworth County in 1855, where three
years later he married Mary A., daughter of Charles Phillips, of Ancaster, where she
was horn in 1842. Their children are Charles G., Eohert Henry, Thomas E., William
J. and Kichard J. Mr. McMillen followed his trade until coming to Brant County in
1879. He now owns a good farm of 50 acres, which he cultivates.
GEORGE MEADOWS, farmer, Brantford, was bom April 13, 1840, in Oxford
County. His father, Joseph Meadows, was bom August 22, 1804, in Suffolk County,
England, and was married June 20, 1826, to Miss Ann, daughter of Joseph Shaw, a
native of Linoolnishire, England. He came to Canada in 1825, working in Grimsby,
at his trade, milling, for three years, when he removed to Zorra Township, Oxford
County. They were the parents of thirteen children — Charles, Francis, William,
Hannah S., Reuben, George, Sarah A., Elizabeth, Joseph, Henry M., Mary, Alfred
and Thomas. George Meadows came to Brant County in 1874, and settled on his
present farm of 140 acres of improved land. He married, December 27, 1866, Harriet
M. Francis, who was bom November 26, 1843. They have a family of five children,
vii: : Elizabeth, bom July 23, 1868 ; Manila A., bom August 29, 1870 ; Kudele S.,
bom August 18, 1871, died May 6, 1874 ; Bertha Olive and Bertie Olive (twins), bom
March 4, 1876. Mr. Meadows was brought up a farmer, is a member of the A.O.U.W.,
and Trustee and a class-leader of the Mount Vernon Methodist Church.
GEORGE H MIDGELY, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Brant County Deo. 4,
1841, and is a son of Robert and Jane (Hill) Midgely. Greorge was bom on the old
homestead, and married February 22, 1865, Miss Sarah Jane Barker, who was bom
December 28, 1844, in South Dumfries. They became the parents of five children,
viz., William G., bom May 18, 1867; Minnie I., bora Febroary 12, 1872; Mary
A., bom October 27, 1874; Boss, bom April 14, 1879; and Ernest E., bom May
20, 1881. Mr. Midgely has been Trustee of his district, in which is the school he
attended when a boy. He owns a well regulated farm of 59 acres adjoining his
father's, is a Reformer in politics, and an attendant of the Congregational Church.
THOMAS MIDGELY, farmer and stock-raiser, Paris P.O., was bom September
16, 1851. He is the son of Eobert and Mary (Ironmarsh) Midgely, natives of
England. Thomas Midgely was married April 22, 1874, to Miss "hiaij E. Barker,
by whom he had three children, viz., Myrtle L., bom Febraary 21, 1875 ; Eva M.,
bom April 16, 1876 ;and Daniel W., bom September 11, 1877. Mr. Midgely devotes
most of his time to stock-raising, and his farm is well stocked with animals of good
and some of the finest strains. He now occupies the old homestead, which is situated
nine miles from Brantford and three from Paris. Mr. Midgely is a Reformer in
politics, and a member of the C. M. Church.
ROBERT MIDGELY, retired farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in England in 1809,
and is a son of William and Jane (Qill) Midgely, who died in England. Mrs. Jane
Midgely, after marrying her second husband, Samuel Rowson, died in 1833. Robert
was one of five sons; in 1833 he married Mary Anne Ironmarsh. They came to
Canada in 1838, living for a short time in Paris, and in 1839 moved on a farm in the
north-west of Brant County. Mr. Midgely lived here 40 years improving his lands,
and built a fine stone residence in 1856-7. He lost his first wife in 1874, and then
removed back to Paris to spend the remainder of his days. By his first wife he had
three sons and one daughter, viz., Williamson, Mary A., now Mrs. Wm. Ball ; Thomas,
whose history may be found in this volume ; and John H. Mr. Midgely married in
1875 his second wife, Mrs. Agnes Dawson, who came to Canada in 1841. There
were no children by this union. Mrs. (Dawson) Midgely had four daughters, viz.,
Elizabeth, now the wife of Dr. Smith, of Hamilton ; Marion, now Mrs. MaxweU, of
Minnesota; Agnes A., now Mrs. Henry Allen, Paris ; and Susan I , now the wife of
35
686 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Andrew Harvey, of New York State. Mr. Midgely had but little means to commence
life with, but he has been yery successlul in all his undertakings, and now enjop
the savings of his early toil. He is a Conservative iu politics, and a member of the
English Church.
GEORGE MILLS, farmer, Newport P.O., was bom May 13th, 1806, and was
bred within three miles of Alnwick, Northumberland, England. He came to Canada
in 1834. He was in the County of Waterloo one and a half years; then tended a
mill in St. Geoi^ three years ; then tended a mill in Brantford for James Wilkes for
eight years ; and subsequently settled on the farm where he now resides. He is a son
of Isaac and Sarah (Mills) Mills, and was married at Newcastle, England, May 15th,
1834, to Margaret Crow, daughter of Alexander Crow, all of Newcastle, England.
By this union there were seven children, all bom in Canada, viz., Mary Jane, Isabella,
Sarah Ann, Isaac, Margaret, Harriet, Elizabeth and Emily Robinson. Mr. Mill's
career has been a marked success. He arrived in this country with a cash capital of
but $60, and after enduring the hardships consequent upon settling in a new countiy,
has steadily pushed his way upward and ^onward until he now owns a 100-acre fiatm
worth $10,000, pleasantly situated on the old Newport Road, three miles from Brant-
ford. He was Tax Collector for ihe Township for two years. His opportunities for
education were limited to the common schools, and the manner in which he has
acquired position and influence shows the good use made of his talent. He is a
member of the Congregational Church, a Reformer, and a substantial citizen. His
son, Isaac MOk, lives on the homestead, is a Reformer in politics, and received a
common school education.
JAMES MILLER, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Scotland. He was a son of
John and Rachel (Cooper) Miller, natives of Scotland. Mrs. Miller died in Scotland,
and James^ with his father, came to Canada, resided one year in Hamilton, and in 1839
removed to Paris Township. Mr. James Miller came to '' The Plains " in the year
1840, April 8th. He married first, in 1833, Janet Mofiat, by whom he had nine
children, viz., Mary, John, Rachel, Janet, William, Margaret, James, Peter and
George. Mrs. Miller died June 2nd, 1876, and on November 8th,' 1878, Mr. Miller
took for a second wife Anna Givens. The youngest son, George, is by this union. Mr.
Miller started in life with a very small capital, but by hard labour and careful man-
agement he has acquired 220 acres of land, with a good residence, built in style and
taste. He is a Reformer in politics, and attends the Presbyterian Church.
JOHN MILLER, farmer, Paris P. O., was bom in Scotland in 1836. He is a son
of James and Janet (Mofiat) Miller. John came to Canada with his &ther in 1839,
and married, April 2nd, 1864, Ellen E. Fawkes, daughter of Thomas Fawkes, a native
of England. Thej became the parents of four children, viz., Janet, Susan, James and
Frederick. Mr. Miller, knowing the value of an education, is giving his children every
opportunity of schooling. He owns a well improved farm of 65 acres, pleasantly
situated on Grand River. He is a Reformer in politics, and a Presbyterian in belief.
CHARLES MINSHALL, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Brant County,
July 15th, 1852. He is a son of Joseph and grandson of Thomas, a native of Eng-
land, who came to Canada about the year 1828, and located in this county, where he
died. Joseph, his son, came to the Province with his father, and married, 1836, Mary
Foulks, daughter of Thomas Foulks, also a native of England. Their family were six
in number, of whom Thomas is dead, and William, John, Henry, Sarah and Oharies
are living. Charles, of whom this sketch is written, married, April 11th, 1877,
Amelia Smith, daughter of Richard Smith. They had three children — Alphaetta,
bom December 18di, 1877 ; Richard H., born June 5th, and died June 6th, 1879 ;
William, bom Sept. 18th, 1880. Mr. MinahaH is a successful farmer, owning 80
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 587
acres of fine land, six miles from the county capital, 68 of which is under an excel-
lent state of cultivation. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
SAMUEL MISNER, farmer, Jerseyville P.O., was bom in Wentworth County,
in 1818, and is a son of Peter Misner, who was bom in the State of New Jersey, in
1786, but has resided since 1799 in Canada. He married Deborah, daughter of Samuel
Wilson ; she was bom in New Jersey, 1788, of Welsh descent They were the parents
of sixteen children, our subject being the seventh son. Samuel Misner was raosed in
Wentworth County, but since 1848 has made Bi-ant County his place of abode ; he now
owns a farm ot 189 acres. He married, January 5th, 1841, Miss Nancy Dumon, who
was bom Febraary 2nd, 1823, in East Dumfries. They are members of the Baptist
Church, and have the following children, viz., Lorinda, Eleanor, Judson, Francis,
Samuel, DeLos and Edith.
JAMES H. MOLASEIEY, farmer, Paris P.O., was born in New Branswick in
1808. He was a son of Peter and Mary (Pickle) Molaskef, natives of New Brunswick,
who departed . this life in Brant County. James H. Molaskey is a nephew of Elder
Francis Pickle, of Blenheim Township. I{e came to Brantfoni 50 years ago, and 'he
has witnessed the growth of the county from a wilderness, without a lence or a bridge,
to its present highly improved state. Mr. Molaskey married, May 2, 1842, Caroline
Morrell, daughter of James Morrell. She was his first wife, and was the mother .of
John N., James H. and Joseph. After the death of Mrs. Molaskey, he married in
1851 Harriett Griffin. The children by this union were Hannah C, Richard, Janet,
Morrice E. and Sarah, all members of churches. Mr. Molaskey is now 74 years of
age, possesses all his mental faculties, and gave the notes from which this sketch is
prepared.
WILLIAM MOYLE, farmer, Paris P.O., is a grandson of John Moyle, who was
for many years a resident of Dorsetshire, Englini, where he died. He was by
occupation a farmer, and lived to the advanced age of 93 years. The following are the
names of his nine children: John, Jr., William, Aaron, Henry, Rachel, Deborah,
Elizabeth, Jane and Mary. Henry, the father of our subject, was the joungest son,
and was born in Wiltshire, England, and died in the County of Brant, Ontario,
Canada. He grew up to farm life, and acquired a good education, and was especially
a practical and accurate surveyor. In 1837 he with his family came to Canada, and
settled near Paris in the spring of 1838 ; here he followed farming mostly through life,
and was the first permanent settler on Lot 20 of the first concession, in the Township
of Brantfoiti. His administration as Magflstrate covered many years, during which
time his decisions were conceded to be just and equitable by all who knew him. He
was one of the directors and stockholders in the old Gore Bank, of Hamilton, which
position he occupied at his death, at 73 years of age. His wife was Anna Snelling,
who was bom in Dorsetshire, England, and died in the County of Brant, Ontario, at
the age of 72. They had a family of three sons, viz. : John, who returned to England,
where he died in the prime of life ; Henry, who now lives in Paris, and WUliam,
whose name heads this sketch; the latter was bom in Dorsetshire in 1821, but
from 16 years of age grew up in the County of Brant, and during the entire time he
was a resident of the same county. He lias always followed farming, and now owns a
finely improved farm on the Paris stone road, ^f 125 acres. His wife is Martha
RandaU, of Dorsetshire, England. They have four kons and two daughters. The
family belong to the Baptist ChurcL Mr. Moyle acquired a fair education in his
native country ; and since coming to the County of Brant, his business associations
have placed him among the well-informed citizens. He was for many years President
of the Biant County Mutual Insurance Company, but resigned in 1881.
WILLIAM A. NARRAWAT (deceased), was bom in Devonshire, England, in 1814,
and is a son of James and Mary (Rowe) Narraway, who were both natives of England,
588 HISTORY OF JBRANT COUNTY.
where they married in 1813, and in 1830 James and his two sons, William and James,
Junr., came to Canada. Two yeai-s later the rest of the faoiilj came. Thej settled
in Nova Scotia ; but William, the eldest, only remained a short time, when he took up
his abode in the State of Kew York, where he married in January, 1838, and in
1843, he, as well as his father, emigrated from their respective homes and settled in
Biant' County, Ontario. They purchased about 150 acres of land, where they soon
felt at home, and life began in earnest. James, the father of William, died in 1852,
aged fifty, and his widow, now at the advanced age of eighty-nine, years, resides in
Brantford. William and family remained on the farm, but he devoted moKt of his
time to millwrighting, which trade he learned in early life. In 1880 they moved within
one mile of Brantford, where he died in May, 1881, and where his family still reside.
In 1879, the Ontario Government honoured him with a commission as Justice of the
Peace for the county. Eeligiously he was a Canada Methodist, and took an active part
in the erection of the church at Cainsville, Brant County, in 1875. During its
erection he served as Chairman of the Building Committea In 1874 he, as Lay Dele-
gate from this district, represented it in the First General Conference of the Canada
Methodist Church which convened at Toronto. At the time of his death he was
Secretary of the Board of Church Trustees, and otherwise officially connected with the
church. His widow, the mol!her of his three children, was Mary S. Hall, a native of
Connecticut, but raised in JSIew York. Of her three children, Annie, the youngest,
only was born in Canada, Alfred R. and James F. having emigrated with their
parents from the State of Xew York.
ALEXANDER OLES, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of John Oles and a grand-
son of Gilbert and Elenor (Brice) Oles, Elenor being his second wife. They were
both natives of Pennsylvania, and were married about 1793, at Fort Erie. Soon after
he settled in what is now Haldimand County, Canada, and about 1800 Gilbert
returned to the States, where he died. Elenor subsequently, with her three children,
Fannie, John and Gilbert F., settled near Mount Pleasant, now Brant County,
where she remained until her death. John, the father of our subject, was bom near
Little York, County of Haldimand, and from infancy was raised by his widowed
mother. In 1803 they settled near Mount Pleasant, since which time he has resided
in Brant County. He grew up to farm life, and assisted in transforming the dense
pine forests into open and productive fields. At a mature age he learned carpentering,
which he followed more or less through life, doing most of his own building. About
1822, he bought 150 acres of his first land, of Isaac Whiting, Mr. Oles being the
first permanent settler on the land. He endured all the hardships common to those
days^ and during the War of 1812 served as a substitute^ being too young to serve
otherwise, and is now one of the few pensioners of that war living, aged 85 years.
About 1840 he joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to which he and wife both
belong. In March of 1822 he married Ann, daughter of the pioneer Isaac Whiting,
by whom he has had nine children — Eliza, Alexander, Samuel, Levi, K<&ncy, Ann,
John, Matthew and Mary J. The four first and last born are living. Alexander, the
second, was born Febuary 17, 1825, and is the subject of this sketch. He has always
resided in this county, and followed farming. He was educated in the common schools,
and in 1847 married Eliza File, by whom he has six children, viz., John, Albert,
Catharine, Elizabeth, Jane A. and Charles, the last now in High School at Waterdown.
Mr. Oles is one of the well-to-do citizens of the county, and his wife is a daughter of
John File, mentioned in David File's sketch in this volume.
PALMKR & SHAW, proprietors of the Lome Mills on Fairchild's Creek, Cains-
ville. Amons; the early established mills are those above mentioned. The senior
member of this firm, Mr. A. J. Palmer, is a son of William Palmer, and was bom in
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 589
4
Wentworth County in 1852. He was raised to farm life in his native county, where
he reoeived a fair education. In 1876 he joined John D. Mcintosh in the purchase
of the Lome Mills, Mcintosh being a practical and experienced miller, but in 1878
he sold to Palmer, with whom William Shaw is now associated. In 1879, Mr. A. J.
Palmer married Emma, daughter of Thomas Shaw ; to this union one child is given.
JOSHUA PALMERSTON, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Norfolk
County, Ontario, April 28th, 1814, and is the son of Benjamin, who was the son of
Joshua and great-grandson of JamesPalmerston,a native of Huntingdonshire, England.
The grandfather of the subject of this sketch came to America about 1630, and died
in the then British Colonies. His son Benjamin went to New Brunswick about the
year 1780, where he remained until 1812, when he removed to Norfolk County and
died in 1862. Joshua Palmerston married, April 27th, 1842, Jane Fisher, daughter
of Samuel Fisher. By this union there were born eight children,* as follows : Sarah
Elizabeth, bom Feb. 27th, 1845 ; John C, bom Dec. 26th, 1847, died April 28th,
1877 ; Harriet A., bom March 22nd, 1849 ; Mary J., boi?i April 8th, 1851 ; Ben-
jamin W., bom May 16th, 1853 ; OUve, bom April 29th, 1855 ; James H., bom
Jan. 19th, 1858 ; Lewis A., bom June 13th, 1860. He is the owner of a finely cul-
tivated farm of 125 acres of excellent land, about seven miles from Brantford, which
gives evidence of thrift and good management. The family are Baptists.
JAMES PAPPLE, stock-raiser and farmer, St George P.O. John Papple, the
fakther of our subject, was a native of Scotland, where he married. In 1846 he emi-
grated to Canada with his wife and the following children : Alexander, Jamch,
Edward, William, Mary and Elizabeth. They settled in Dumfries Township, where
soon after his arrival he buried bis wife and three children, Edward, Mary and
Elizabeth. Mr. Papple then settled in Huron County, where he died in 1874, lea^^g
a wife and five children. Of this family James is the only one living in Brant County,
where he owns 100 acres of prime farm land. He was bom in Scotland, April 21st,
1833, and was thirteen years old when his parents emigrated. He attended the parish
schools of his native land six years before he came to Canada, and succeeded in reach-
ing the high school department. After his arrival in Canada he was only enabled to
attend school during the winter seasons of three years. After his mother's death he
was bound out for nine years to Abraham YanSickle, and at the expiration of his
term of service, like Jacob of old, he married his master's daughter. He then settled
down to the quiet and honourable life of a farmer, in which he has since continued, and
now, by energy and perseverance, he has obtained the position of one of the leading
&rmers and stockmen of the county. As a stock-raiser he has won some of the first
prizes of the county. By his wife Elizabeth, whom he married on Feb. 28th, 1855, he
has had eight children, viz. : David, William, Isaac, Elmer (deceased), Mary Ellen, Etty
Melissa, Elizabeth Jane, and James Milton. The parents and five children are mem-
bers of the Baptist Church. Mr. Papple is a Reformer in politics.
HAMILTON PELTON, farmer, Falkland P.O., was born in Blenheim Township
in the year 1826. He is a son of Samuel and Rhoda (Rouse) Pel ton, natives of Rhode
Island, who came to Canada about the time of the War of 1812, Mr. Pelton, Sr., taking
a soldier's part in that straggle. During the troublous times of the war Mrs. Pelton
narrowly escaped tomahawking at the hands of an Indian with whom she was thrown
in contact At the expiration of the war Mr. and Mrs. Pelton settled in Oxford County,
where they remained until the death of the former. Mrs. Pelton afterwards married
Jacob Hess. Hamilton Pelton, the youngest of his father's seiren children, was raised
by his stepfather until eighteen years of age, when he began life for himself. When
he reached his majority he obtained $50 of his brother out of his father's estate, and
having saved $150, be put the two sums together, and with them started for the State
590 • fflSTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of Ulinoifl, walking the entire distance, 550 miles. Arriving on the Kankakee Biver, he
gave $100 to a '* squatter ** for eighty acres of land, thirty acres being broken and fenced,
and supplied with a log house and bam. " He afterwuds sold it to the former owner
at a smuJl profit, and returning to Canada, purchased his first farm, in Burford Town-
ship. He then bought 50 acres in Blenheim on the Government Boad, 50 near it in
Burford, which he cleared, and lastly, he purchased his present place. He now owns
440 acres of farm land, a foundry, and Learly an acre of land attached, at BJahopsgatey
and a lot and ashery at Kelvin. On Nov. 26, 1848, he married Hannah Misitin, by
whom he has had a family of nine children.
DANIEXi FEBLEY, deceased, was bom in Canada, Dec. 4, 1820, and came with
his fiftther, Colonel C. S. Perley, to the County of Brant, in 1834, and in 1843 settled
on land now known, as Evergreen Lodge, in Brantford Township, about seven miles
from the Town of Brantford. In 1845 he married Elizabeth J. Nelles, of Brant County.
They had three children — ^two sons, now married, and one daughter, who is still at home.
Al^d, the youngest son, has charge of the farm. Mr. Perley died Dec. 13, 1882, his
death being occasioned by the kick of a horse in his own stable. He was widely
known as a fine breeder of Southdown sheep, taking the gold and silver medals at
Ottawa, in 1879, and many diplomas and prizes at other exhibitions. He was among
the first settlers of Brant Coimty, and acted as School Trustee for twenty-one year&
He was also President of the Brantford Agricultural Society, and was a member of the
Church of England. His widow still occupies the homestead with her son.
JOHN B. PETTIT, a farmer, Brantford Township, near Paris, was bom in Canada,
Niagara District, Township of Grimsby, 3rd of June, 1810. He was a son of Jonathan
A. Pettit and Catherine (Beamer) Pettit. Jonathan and his father, Andn^w Pettit,
emigrated from what was Province of New Jersey to Canada in 1787, and settled in
what ia now County of Lincoln. Andrew Pettit, the grandfather of our subject, traces
his ancestors to citizens in America for two centuries past. Jonathan A. Pettit was s
lieutenant, and served in that capacity in the War of 1812; he was stationed at
Niagara with 4th Regiment Lincoln Militia, and when the American army crossed the
river, he was slightly wounded in the battle that took place. He was in the hard con-
tested battle of Lundy 's Lane, his regiment, with other militia, forming the right Among
the amusing incidents of the war he would relate that after the battle of Stony Creek
the American army, on their retreat past Grimsby, had become entirely demoralized.
He and Captain Hickson took their arms and went in pursuit along the shore of Lake
Ontario, and about 40 American soldiers surrendered as prisoners, and were sent in
boats to the British schooners lying a short distance off on the lake. Mr. Pettit was
to the front in theEebellion of 1837, stationed at Queenston under Captain Nixon, 4th
Regiment Lincoln Militia, and held a captain's commission when he left the limits of
the regiment. John B. Pettit was married in 1834 to Mary Carpenter, daughter of
Wm. Carpenter and Maitha Smith, of the Township of SaltBeet. Mr. Pettit had a
family of five children, two sons and three daughters. Wm. Carpenter was a son of
Ashman Carpenter, who emigrated from New Jersey to Canada in 1791, and is a branch
of a faiiily supposed to be the heirs to an estate in England of many million pounds
sterling. The ancestors of Mr. and Mrs. Pettit experienced all the privations and
sufferings of the first settlers in Canada. As an instance, Mr. Pettit's grandfather, in
the spring of 1788, travelled from Grimsby to the Grand River, near where the City of
Brantford is, to purchase a bushel of wheat of the Indians, and returned with it to
Grimsby ; then carrying it to Niagara Falls to Samuel Street's mill, returning with it
to Grimsby, doing the whole distance on foot. Mrs. Pettit's grandfather, Silas Smith,
also travelled to Uie same Indian Settlement, and purchased a sack of com, carrying it
home on his back. His family, consisting of six children, lived six weeks upon what
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 591
they gathered from the woods, and fish. It is said that the first Methodist »ervioe ever
held in Western Canada was at the residence of Silas Smith. The heroic acts per-
formed, and the hardships the early settlers endured, were calcalated to develop
that genuine social hospita ity so characterbtic of their descendants of the fourth and
fifth generation wherever found to^lay. The Pettits are a family of £urmers with only
a few exceptions. Tbe first Judge that ever sat upon the King's Bench at the for-
mation of the Province of Upper Canada, in 1791, was Nathaniel Pettit, uncle of Jona-
than A. Pettit. The Kev. Canon Chas. Pettit, of the Diocese of Ontario, is a grandson
of Andrew, and John Pettit, a great-grandson, is a physician in the City of Buffalo.
Mr. Pettit has seen very great changes in Lis native province. Where, in his childhood
days, he saw the wild ndian and the wild deer gambol and play under the tall waving
pines ; where he Ueitened at night to the wolfs howl and the bead's growl, may now be
seen cozy cottages and stately mansions, surrounded with extensive gardens of the most
delicious fruits of all kinds, well cultivated farms, yielding an annual production
sufficient to give happiness, and the highest state of civilization, to aU. Where his
ancestors travelled in the Indian trail and their byways, he travels by railways and
highways ; where they paddled the birch canoe, now sails the palatial steamer of many
thousand tons ; where they had to wait for weeks and months for the messengers to carry
news, the telegraph and telephone flash it instantaneously from city to cit}'. Equally
great is the advancement of education. From the log cabin, with its three R.'s, to the best
system of common schools, graded up to its colleges and universities, the humblest child
if it aspires may rise to a profession. In religion the Pettits are attached to the
Church of England, the £euth of their forefathers ; and being descendants of Jersey
Loyalists, the most of them remain Conservative in politics, but Mr. Pettit himself is
an advanced Reformer.
JOHN PHELPS, farmer, Langford P.O. As genealogy is always appreciated, we,
through the assistance of one of the Phelps family, give a brief outline of this family
genealogy back to the first part of the seventeenth century, when the name was
spelled Phyllyppes. They were an ancient and honourable *' Staffordshire" family ;
the superfluous letters having been dropped during the reign of Edward YI. It is
proven by documentary records that the family can be tra<^ back to William the
Conqueror. While in England they figured prominently in municipal affairs ; but
in 1620 the Mayflower landed on the soil of the Western Continent the ancestors
of the family, to wit : William Phelps and brother George, the first of the name west
of the Atlantic, and Puritan pioneers. William Phelps, in November, 1630, was chosen
a member of the first jury empanelled in the colony. He was a man of pure piety
and sterling worth, which seems to have flowed in the blood of his descendants for
over two centuries. These traits have been the meam» of exalting many of them to
high and honourable stations. In short they have, in military service, filled the offices
from general down, and in the municipal affairs of the United States, from Congress-
man through all the descending offices to the humble but honest farmer. Their settle-
ment in Canada dates to the year 1800, when David Phelps and family settled on the
Grand River swamp. David was born at Belchester, Massachusetts, in 1768, and
died in Boston, Canada. He was twice married, first to Mary Sperry, who died in
Brant County August 24, 1821, aged fiflby-two years and eight months. His second
wif« was Hannah Olmsted, whom he left a widow on August 2, 1834, the result of the
kick of a vicious horse. He was the father of sixteen children, viz., Martha, Othniel,
Anna, Elisha, David (died in infancy), Beriah, Elijah, Lydia, Mary, David, Junr.
By his second wife, Ursula and Anna (twins). Champion J., (}eorge W., Boxy Lany,
and Matthias M. Of this family Elisha, the seventh, was the father of our subject ;
he was bom in Brant County in 1803, and died in 1877, having spent his entire life
692 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
in the county of his birth. He was a strong and hearty man, having followed fanning
throughout his lifei as did his father before him. He was married in 1825 to Eliza-
beth, daughter of John Yanderlip, of Wentworth County, who died in Brant County,
October i, 1873. The family consisted of three children, viz., John, Mary, and Mark,
but the eldest is the only one now living. He was bom in Brant .County in 1826.
He was raised to farm life, and has followed it through life, now owning 174 acres of
land, mostly the result of his own efforts. He was married March 18, 1857, to Catha-
rine Hawley, daughter of a pioneer of the county. Five children are the issue of this
union, viz., Adam, Elizabeth, Emma, Alice, and Ezia K
GEORGE PIKE, fanner, Bfentford P.O., is a son of William and a grandson of
Abraham Pike ; the latter was a native of Queen's County, Ireland, where he was
raised, matured and marned to Hannah Heritage, of Irish birth also. In 1819 they,
with eight children, started for Canada, but while on the ocean death seized their son
Charles. They landed at Quebec on the 19th of June of the same year, and made route
for Mount Pleasant, now in Brant County ; here their hearts failed them, and they soon
made a return track for their mother country ; but on reaching Harrisburg sickness of
the family detained them until spring, when nature opened out in all its beauty, which
induced them again to settle in the then wilds of Brant County. It was but a short
time until Abraham died, leaving his widow with a large family of children, which she
raised. She finally married Cornelius Connor, and both died in the county. During
her life she frequently walked to Dundas and back in one day, for goods she wanted
from the stores. The seven children which landed were Fannie, William, Ellen, Ann,
Thomas, Benjamin and Joanna. They all ,grew to maturity, married and settled in the
County of Brant. William, the father of George, was born in Ireland in 1806, and
died in Brant County in 1857. He was a farmer and resident of the county for nearly
forty years. His widow still survives, bearing the name of her departed husband. Her
maiden name was Mary Morris. She was bom on Long Point in 1813. During
William's early life he assisted in building the first house in Guelph. He and wife
were members of the Methodist Church. They were the parents of six sons and one
daughter, our subject being the eldest. Henry, Benjamin, Thomas and Hannah are
deceased, but Nelson and Abraham, with George, still survive. Benjamin died in
Andersonville prison during the American Eebellion. Geoige is the only one living
in the county to relate the history of his family. He was bom here in 1832, and has
ever since resided here. He has been farming generally, but has taken an active part
in schools, and has been Trustee repeatedly. Tax Collector, and is now serving his t^hird
year as Assessor. He was married in 1860 to Mary, daughter of William Irwin
and sister of Francis Irwin ; she was bom in the County of Brant in 1837. She and
her husband have seven children, viz.: Martha H., William Irwin, George B., Minnie
A., Francis A., Ellen E., and Edith J. Mr. Pike joined the 2nd Battedion of Brant
Militia as Ensign in 1856, became Lieutenant in i860, and went out on frontier service
in 1864 with the Highland Eifles as private. He has been a member of the Loyal
Orange Institution since 1857, was elected County Master twice, and was the first
representative of the County of Brant of the Eoyal Black Knights of Ireland, held in
Albert Hall in Toronto, in 1878.
EVAN PILGRIM, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in October, 1826, in Nor-
folk County, England ; he is a son of Morris and Martha (Bird) Pilgrim., and a grand-
son of Morris Pilgrim, all of England. Evan Pilgrim came to Canada in 1854, ind
settled in Brant County, where he married, August 20th, 1854, Susanna, daughter of
Michael and Hannah (Rudd) Porter ; she was bom October 11th, 1834. They were
the parents of nine children, named William, bom May 14th, 1857 ; Alvena, bom
January 1, 1862 : Jane, bom April 11th, 1864 ; Frederick, bom September 22nd, 1859,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 593
died February 22nd, 1871 ; Evan, born July 15th, 1866 ; Mary K, bom November,
22nd, 1868 ; Susannah, born January 2nd, 1871 ; Frederick (the second), bom October
16th, 1872 ; Sarah, bom December 13th, 1874 ; and Emma, bom July 3rd, 1879. Mr.
Pilgrim started in life a poor man, but has now a competency for himself and wife of
226 acres of fine farming land ; they still live to share the comforts of their united toil
in early life.
ROBERT POTRIFF farmer, Paris P.O., was bom October 16th, 1825, and is a son
of Simeon and Elizabeth (Stewart) Potriff. His father was a native of the State of
Pennsylvania, and came to Canada in 1810, settling near what is now the City of
Hamilton, which at that time consisted of one store and one or two other old build-
ings. Mr. Potriff took an active part in the Rebellion of 1837>8, and died in 1839.
In his family of thirteen children, Robert, the second, was married January 19th,
1844, to Nancy Stewart, daughter of Alexander Stewart, of Wentworth County.
They became the parents of eleven children, viz., Catherine, Alexander, Annie L.,
Oarrie M., Sarah E., Jonathan, Alfred E., Robert W., Margaret J., Nina H. and
William A. Six of them are now married. Mr. Potriff sold the 100 acres of land
which was left him by his father and bought the 300 acres upon which he now lives.
It is situated six miles from Brantford and three miles from Paris. His family are
members of the M. K Church, and he is a Reformer in politics.
SIMEON POTRIFF, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom November 10th, 1839 ; he was
a son of Simeon and Elizabeth (Stewart) Potriff His grandfather, John Potriff,
came to Canada when Simeon was about thirteen years old, and settled in Saltfleet
Township, Wentworth County. They were natives of the State of Maryland. John
Potriff was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died at the age of 44 years. He was a
member of the M. E. Church, and one of the earliest settlers of Canada. Simeon
Potriff married, July 2nd, 1862, Eliza J., daughter of James Smith, of Ancaster
Township, Brant County. They are the parents of seven children, all living at home,
viz.: William E, Christine £., James A., Robert A., John Milton, Margaret J. and
Charles Lionel Mr. Potriff has made farming his special vocation, and as such is
very successful.
NELSON RAMEY, farmer, Brantford P. 0., was bom in this county in 1849,
and is a son of Casper and Elizabeth (Near) Bamey. Casper Ramey was bom in'Port
Colbome, Welland County, in 1809, and is now one of the large land-owners in the
county. He married Elizabeth Near, a descendant of an early pioneer family, by
whom he had fifteen children. Mrs. Ramey died in 1 880. Of this family Nelson
was the third youngest ; he received a common school education, and has always
lived in this county. He married, in 1880, Miss Zilpha, daughter of Peter and Phoebe
Book. She was bom in Brant County in 1857. Mr. Ramey has a good farm, and
devotes his time principally to stock-raising.
A. G. RAMSEY, farmer and manufacturer of lumber, Langford P.O., is a son of
James Ramsey, who was bom at Niagara Falls in 1806, and died in Brant County in
1870 ; his father was a native of Scotland, who came to America prior to the War of
Independence, and remaining loyal to the Crown of England, served through the great
conflict He subsequently settled at Lundy's Lbu^ where he died. He was by occu-
pation a millwiight, and erected the Bridgewater Mills on Niagara River. James, the
father of our subject, was raised near his birthplace, where he was educated, becoming
a classical student, and for about twenty-five years he taught school in the Counties of
Welland, Oxford and Brant. Even though he was a teacher in pioneer days, he was
none the less a scientific and highly esteemed citizen. At his death he had resided
about fort}' years in Brant County. He was married to Jane, daughter of John Haw-
Icins, who was born in England. Our subject was bom in Paris September 18, 1838,
<^
594 H18T0BT OF BRANT GOUHTT.
and partly raised at his birihplaoOy reoeiving moet of his education in his native vil-
lage. Very early in life he engaged in the manuflBhctare of lumber, which he has mostly
followed through life. About 1864 he came to Langfoid and built his present saw-
milly in which he has done a large business. About 1871 he bought his present farm.
In 1870 he married Maigaret YanSickle, a native of Wentwo^th Oounty, born in 1846.
To this union has been given six children, viz., Ada, (}eoige (deceased), Clara, Albert,
Alice, and Arthur G.
JAMES R£ID, waggon and carriage maker, Justice of Peace and ex-Beeve, Cains-
viUe P.O., is a native of the Village of Doune, Perthshire, Scotland, bom in 1818, and
son of Thomas and Margaret (Russell) Reid, who were both natives of Scotland, where
they lived and died. Of their six children three are now living—- one in Scotland,
one in Australia, and our subject, the latter being the only one who became a citizen of
Canada, where he has resided since 1848. He grew up in his native land, learned his
trade, and acquired a common education. In 1845 he married Jeanette McLaren, a native
of Scotland. Three years later they settled in Cainsville, Briint County, where she
died in the fall of 1850. She was the mother of three children, two of whom are now
living, viz., Thomas and Isabella* Mr. Keid's second wife was Elsie (Simpson) Tuttle,
of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by whom two children were bom, James and Mary A.
When Mr. Beid first settled in Cainsville he laboured as employee ; two years later he
succeeded his employer as proprietor, and has since conducted a favourable and hon-
ourable business in Cainsville. He has filled the office of Trustee of School Section
No. 22 for a period of twenty-five years. The section made him a present of a writing
desk as a memento of its regard. He is at present Justice of the Peace. Politically
he adheres to the Reformers, and religiously to the First Presbyterian Church of Brant-
ford. On retiring from office in the spring ""of 1882, after a long term of service as
Reeve, the people evinced their high regard for him in an official capacity by presenting
him with a handsome testimonial, which is fully spoken of in the body of this work.
WILLIAM A. RISPIN, farmer, Cainsville P. 0., was bom near Toronto, in 1834,
and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Watson) Rispin, and a gprandson of William and
Elizabeth (Asquith) Watson, all of English ancestry. His father and mother, Thomas
and Mary (Watson) Rispin, were born in Yorkshire, Elngland, and were married in
1824. They came to Canada in 1830, with three children, viz., Ann, Sarah and Eliza-
beth, settling near Toronto. In 1851 they removed to this county, where they still
live. They are membera of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and are now the parents
of nine children, William A. bein>; the fourth. He was married in 1868 to Nancy,
daughter of Hector and Laurena Ball. They are the parents of eight children, viz.,
Mary, Eliza, John, William, Alice, Sarah, Nancy and Anna. Mr. Rispin has a farm
of 100 acres.
THOMAS ROBSON, farmer, Brahtford Township, son of James Robson, was
bom in Roxburghshire, Parish of Minto, Scotland, Sept. 25th, 1814, and came to
Canada in 1834. He married, Oct. 5th, 1847, Margaret Johnson, daughter of
Alexander, and granddaughter of George Johncon, all natives of Scotland. She was
born Sept 5th, 1827. They .were the parents of ten chUdrdn, as follows : Elizabeth,
bom April 29th, 1849 ; James, born June 15th, 1850 ; Ellen, bom Nov. 23rd, 1851,
died Sept. 3rd, 1852 ; Thomas, born Aug. 31st, 1854 ; Alexander, bom June 15th,
1856 ; Margaret, bom April 5th, 1858 ; Christina, bom April 9th, 1860 ; Agnes,
bom April 13th, 1862, died March 14th, 1864 ; Elsie EUen, bom May 19th, 1864;
Charles, bom April 7th, 1867. During the first five years of Mr. Robson's sojourn
in the land of his adoption, he lived in Burford, and settled upon his present fturm
in 1849. ELis farm is an excellent one, comprising 139 acres of the best land in the
county. It is situated on the London Road, west of the city, from which it is only a
BIOGRAPHICAL 8KET0HES. 596
quarter of a mile diBtant, and is bounded on the north by the Grand River. A fine
spring creek runs through the farm near the centre, upon which his bams and cattle
stables are built. He utilizes the stream for power to grind his grain, and also does
some custom work for his neighbours in that line. Mr. Bobeon received a common
school education; he and his ^mily are members of the Presbyterian Church*
Politically, he is a Tteformer.
WILLIAM RODDICK, fturmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland, April 1840. His parents, John and Margaret Roddick, who had a family
of nine diildren, all bom in Scotland except the two youngest^ were natives of Dum-
faiesshire. The &ther was bom in 1792, and died in Canada April 2nd, 1876. The
mother was a daughter of Robert Courtland, of the same part of Scotland, and she
and her husband emigrated to Canada in 1842. William Roddick, the subject of our
sketch, came to Canada with his parents, who settled first in Maitland, near Brock,
ville, Ont., where they remained ten years, removing to the County of Brant, April
20th, 1853. He was married, Jan. 1st, 1873, to Mary A., daughter of John Aulse-
brook, a native of Nottingham, England. She was bom, March 3rd, 1841, in the
Town of Paris, Ont. Two children have been bom to bless this union, viz., William
J., bom Oct. 14th, 1878, and James O., bom Dec. 25Ui, 1882. Mr. Roddick has held
most of the prominent positions in the county, having been Township Councillor for
the last seven years. He is at present filling the offices of Reeve of the Township of
Brantford, and Warden of the County of Brant. Mr. and Mrs. Roddick are mem
bers of the Presbyterian Church, and the Roddick family are typical, true-bred Scotch
men, tracing back their lineage in Dumfriesshire for a period of five hundred years.
PETER ROY, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1826,
and is a son of David and a grandson of James Roy. David Rov was bom in 1800,.
and in early life learned the manufacturing of woollen goods. In 1832 he came to
New York State, where he followed his trade until 1836, when he removed to
Canada. He bought the farm now owned by his son Peter in 1838, getting his title
from the Government. He for a number of terms served in the Municipal Council.
Mr. Roy died in 1877, leaving one son, Peter. He came to America in 1832, and
in 1836 took up his place of residence in Canada. In 1855 he married Matilda
Fawcett. They are members of the Methodist Church, and have six children, viz.,
David F., James H., Maty M., Matthew Carr, Elizabeth and Egerton.
DAVID RUTHERFORD, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Scotland, July 25,
1826; he was a Hon of John and Isabelle (Steele) Rutherford, natives of Scotland,
where they died. Mr. Rutherford was a shepherd, and had 'nine children. David,
one of his sons and our subject, came to Canada in 1841, and settled on the farm
near where he now resides. He married, 1859, at Paris, Isabelle Rutherford, daughter
of George Rutherford, of Scotland. She died, leaving six children, viz., .Agnes,
Isabelle, John, Oeorge, Robert and James. He married, July 22, 1873, for a second
wife, Catherine Walker. She died soon after, and Mr. Rutherford married Jane
Anderson, of Irish descent. They have no children. The mother of his first wife
is, at this writing, 76 years old. Mr. Rutherford rents at present a good farm of
150 acres, with all modem improvements. He is a Reformer in politics, and has a
large circle of friends.
JAMES RUTHERFORD, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Scotland, was
bom May 16, 1806, came to Canada in 1834, and settled in Brant County. He is
the son of James Rutherford, who emigrated to this Province in 1840, and also
located in this county. He married Elizabeth Gouts, daughter of William Couts,
Their children were John, Mary and William, now dead ; and Elizabeth, James,
Esther, Samuel, Adam, David and Thomas, the two last of whom are twins, still
596 HISTORY OF BBAMT COUNTY.
survive. He died September 28, 1848. James, our subject, married, August 20,
1838, Marjory McLeod, daughter of Donald McLeod, who died in Scotland, the issue
of their marriage being seven children, vie. : Donald, bom October 23, 1837 ; Barbaau
bom April 13, 1842 ; David, bom November 26, 1844 ; John, bom April 17, 1847 ;
Annie, bom July 28, 1850; Elizabeth, bom May 23, 1853 ; Jessie, bom June 28,
1857. The family are adherents of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Rutherford was
for twenty-five years Treasurer of the Detective Association at Newport He has
prospered in this country, and now owns a superior farm of 135 acres, well stocked
and highly cultivated. It is situated about five miles from Brantford, in an excellent
locality.
G£ORG£ SAGE, stock raiser, Brantford P.O., was bom in Somersetshire,
England, in 1814, where he was e<iucated. In 1841 he came to Canada, and married
Eliza, daughter of David Bloomfield. She died July 4, 1848, leaving two children,
viz., John and Eliza, both deceased. Mr. Sage then married Susannah Cale, who died
seven months after marriage. His third wife was Mary Craig, a native of Went-
worth County. She died in 1868, in Brant County, leaving one son, Otter G. His
last wife was Olive Weaver, a native of Ancaster. Mr. Ssge started in life with a
small capital, but by perseverance has acquired 100 acres of good farming land. He
has since 1844 been engaged in handling blooded cattle, in which branch he has met
with success.
JESSE SAGE, farmer and stock raiser, Brantford P.O., was bc^^n in Somersetshire.
England, in 1812^ and is a son of Jebse Sage, Senr., a native of England, who
married Anna Yowals, by whom he had fourteen children, our subject betn^ the
eighth. Ue was brought up to farm life, and married Sarah Clark, a native of the
same shire. They came to Canada in 1838, and the next year Mrs. Sage died. He
then returned to England, and married her cousin, who also died in Brant County in
1876. He had four children, viz.. Charles, George (whose history appears in this
work), Sarah A. Pearson and Anna Webling, all heads of families, and all in the
City of Brantford. Mr. Sage settled on his present farm in 1840, where he has
since carried on extensive stock-raising o|ierations, producing some of the finest cattle
ever shown in this county.
NATHANIEL SAGER, hotel proprietor, Cainsville, is a son of Malachi Sager,
who was bom in Pennsylvania in 1776, and is of German descent He came to Canada
in minor life, and soon after joined the military troops of 1812. He endured many
early privations in the days when mills, churches and schools were almost unknown.
He settled and has since lived near Saint George, following farming throughout Ids
life. His wife was Sarah Dean, from near Hamilton. Of their family our subject
was bom near Saint Creorge in 1838, where he grew up to farm life, and acquired a
common school education. In 1868 he settled in St. George, and for thirteen years
operated different hotels. Subsequently he settled in Brantford, and in January,
1883, he bought and took charge of his present business. On January 15, 1858, he
married Mary E. Neff. Two children are the fruit of this union.
CHARLES AND RICHARD SANDERSON, farmers, Brantford P. O., are sons
of Thomas Sanderson, whose sketeh appears in this work. Charles was bom in 1855,
Richard in 1856, both in Brantford. They were raised to farm life, and acquired a
common school education. Charles was married to Harriet Mills in 1878 ; Richard
married in the same year, Emily Mills, sister of Harriet. They were the daughters
of Geoi^ Mills, of Newport, Ontario. They settled on their farm of 200 acres, known
as Colonel Burrow's Farm, in 1878.
HENRY SANDERSON, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of Richard Sanderson,
who was bom in England in 1794, and died in the County of Brant in 1860. He
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 597
grew up to farm life, and acquired a common school education. "His wife was Jennie,
daughter of Thomas Houlding, who was bom in Lancashire in 1804, where they
were married about 1822 ; sbe died in Brant County in 1877. In 1831 they, with
four children, emigrated to Canada, and settled at Brantford, and we. e ever after
residents of the county. He acquired a desirable home of 200 acres, which, by the
aid of his family, was well improved. He was a strong hearty man, but for a number
of years he was severely afflicted with rheumatism. Their children were nine in num*
ber, viz., Ann, Mary, Thomas, Henry, Richard, Margaret, Eobert, Jane, and Harriet.
Henry was the last child bom in England, in 1829, but from infancy he has been a
resident of this county. The duties that rested on him when at home deprived him of
most of the school privileges, but he has always been blessed with good health, and
that, coupled with his industry, has secured for him a neat and comfortable home of
95 acres, which he cultivates successfully. In 1855 he married Jane Aitchison, who
came fiom Scotland in 1851. They have a family of very interesting children.
THOMAS SANDERSON, farmer, Newport P. 0., was born Sept. 13th, 1827,
and is a son of Richard Sanderson, a native of Lancashire, England, bom Nov. 16,
1794 ; he emigrated to Canada in 1831, and settled in this county. The latter married
Jennie, daughter of Thomas Houlding, also a native of England, who came to this
country in 1831, and located in the county. Their family were nine in number — ^Ann,
Thomas, Henry, Margaret, Robert, JaLe and Harriet, who are living, and Mary and
Richard, now dead. Thomas, the subject of these notes, married, Jan. 1st, 1852,
Mary Birkett^ daughter of William Birkett, a native of England. They have seven
children: Charles, bom May 30th, 1853; Richard, Aug. 19th, 1854; William C,
born June 25th, 1858, died July 31st, 1862 ; Ada, May 19th, 1862 ; Ellen J., June
14th, 1865 ; Thomas S., Oct 25th, 1867 ; Martha, Feb. 24th, 1869 ; Mary E., Nov.
10th, 1870. Mr. Sanderson is the owner of a valuable farm of 104 acres, on the
Grand River, about four miles from Brantford, and is in independent circumstancea
He has ably served his township at the County Council as Deputy Reeve, and at the
Township Council Board as Municipal Councillor, for a period of nine years. His
family are members of Farringdon Church. He received a common school education.
JAMES SCOTT, farmer, a native of Ireland, was bom March 4th, 1847, and came
to Canada at the age of 18. He is a son of James and grandson of Thomas Scott, of
the County Armagh, Ireland, where they died. James married Elizabeth Stinson,
who also died in Ireland. Their children were Thomas, John, William, James, Ann
and Mary Jane. James, of whom we write, settled in thjis county on his arrival from
the old country, and married, Feb. 17, 1859, Isabella McDonald, daughter of Alex-
ander and granddaughter of Donald McDonald, natives of Scotland, the former of
whom settled in Brant County, and died about 1862. They have one child, Mary
Ann, bom June 10, 1860. The family belong to the Church of England. Mr. Scott
owns an excellent farm of 55 acres in Brantford Township, where he resides, and is a
prosperous farmer.
JOHN SCOTT, deceased, was a son of James Scott and a grandson of Thomas
Scott, both of the latter being fully mentioned in the sketch of James Scott. The
subject of this sketch emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1840, and on January 29,
1844, married Jane Strong, a daughter of William Strong, and a granddaughter of
Greoi*ge Sti*ong. Afier their marriage they settled in this county, where Mr. Scott
died June 28, 1874, leaving his farm of 150 acres to his son William. His
family consists of the following children: James, born Feb. 2, 1853, died Feb. 10,
1870 ; William M., born Feb. 28, 1855 ; Mary J., born July 28, 1858 (married Robt.
McCutoheon on March 23, 1875) ; Elizabeth Ann, born April 28, 1861 ; Margaret
C. I., born August 28, 1863. The family are adherents of the Church of England.
£98 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTT.
JAM£S SEALEY, deoeased, was a son of Jeremiah Sealey, who was a native of
New York, but died at Mount Vernon, Bzant County, Ontario. He had been a rendent
and fjarmet here for about twenty years. He and wife had six children — Jamea,
Jeremiah^ Stephen, Charles, Harriet and Sarah. Of the fiunily, James was the eldeat^
boro in New York State. About 1838 he went to Michigan, where he married Phoebe
Young on March' 27, 1848. Two yean later they came to Canada, settling in Brant
County. He followed fisurming and saw-millings In 1855 he bought a farm at Langfoid,
where he died. He and wi£B had a £Gimiiy of seven children, viz., Mary K, Harriet,
James, WilUam M., Martha J., John F. and Charles A« The eldest child is married to
Joseph Jackson, a contractor and builder at Niagara Falls, Ontario. Mrs. Sealey is a
daughter of John Young, and was bom in Frngland, but when one year old her fiither
moved to Michigan, where he died.
THOMAS SHAW, farmer and stock-raiser, Cainsville P.O. Mr. Shaw's fatbor,
Thomas, Sr., was a son of one of the warriors of 1776-81, and died in Canada^ Thomas,
Senr., was bom in Hamilton, and died at Glanford, October 9, 1869, aged 71 years.
HiB wife was Abigail Clark, bom in New Branswick, and died June 17, 1877, at
Glanford, aged 70 years. They had a family of ten children that matured and became
heads of families. Of that number, our subject is the only one living in Brant
County, where he settled in 1870. He was bom in June, 1832, at Glanford, whero
he resided until coming to this county. He devotes considerable time to the raising of
cattle, and has a good home of 125 acres in a locality unequalled for fertility, soil and
many conveniences. He and wife have been members of the Canada Methodist Church
for many years. He is now filling various positions of honour in the church,among which
we mention Becording Steward of the Cainsville Circuit, Class-leader, Trustee, and
Superintendent of the 8. S. Hb wife was Maria J., daughter of Thomas Choate, of
Glanford, where she was bom in 1835. Their children are Alice A., David, William
W., Emma, Hedley, Pierson, John N., Allen C, Fred. B., and Eddie. The first,
second and seventh, deceased.
WILLIAM SHAW, manufacturer of brick, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Went-
worth County, in December, 1858, and is a son of Thomas Shaw. He was brought
up to farm life, and acquired a common education, mostly in Brant County, where he
now owns his farm. In 1881, he engaged in the brick business, turning out 1,000,000
the first year. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and is regarded as an
honest, industrious citixen. He was married in 1883, to Mary File, daughter of Boberi
File, deceased, and Bhoda File, both of this county. Both he and Mrs. Shaw are
active members of the Methodist Church.
WILLIAM SIMPSON, farmer, Falkland P.O., was bom in Norfolk County, in
1819, and ia a son of (teorge and Anna (Workman) Simpson, who emigrated to Canada
in 1818, landing at Port Dover with but a York shilling, and a guinea in debt^ The
first week alter landing, Mrs. Simpson made linen lace for an officer whom she met on
board ship, for which she received $10. Mr. Simpson, for several winters, threshed wheat
with a flul, getting every tenth bushel for his work. The usual amount threshed a
day was 15 to 18 bushels. The fall following Mr. Simpson's arrival in this county, he
ploughed and sowed ten acres of rye, by moonlight, on shares. At one time he went on
foot fourteen miles for the purpose of obtaining a candle, this being the nearest point
He also put in com on shares, and when it was ready to hoe, his wife took William,
our subject, in a basket to the fields, and hoed row about with her husband. In
1819, Mr. Simpson went back to England, his father having died ; he w«s gone about
five months, and during this time his wife dug with a spade ground enough to raise
seventy bu^els of potatoes, which she had all dug and put in a hole under the house
upon his return. She also was accustomed to go a mile to milk, with three children.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 599
taking the youngest in her armSy and letting the others walk until tired, when they
wonld cling on her back. In 1826, Mr. Simpson moved to Dumfries, where he lived in
an old log school house until he built a house. The wolves and bears were veiy
numerous at that time, and people with their cattle stood in great danger of their
attacks. Such were the wilds of the country when our subject was a boy. He married
in 1842 his first wife, Mrs. Underbill Cederquest, with one child. They hsd eight
chDdren. His second wife was Mrs. Toottets, by whom he had no childran. They
are Baptists in belief, and he is a Conservative in politics.
GEORGE SMITH, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of James Smith, who was one
of three brothers, bom near Edinburgh, Scotland. James was bom about 1763, and
was the only one to come to Canada. He was married to Patience Austin, of English
birth, who died in Canada. James, while in his native country, was engaged in the
nursery business, but in 1836 he, with wife and five children, settled in Brantford
Township, where two years later death released him from his earthly cares, but she
survived until 1854. Up to his death he had only started the nursery business, when
his sons George and William took charge of it and conducted the business. They had
been schooled to the business from early life. From the nursery of Smith's many of
the old orchards now in the county were started. William carried on fruit-growing
until his death in 1881, in which our subject also figured conspicuously, and now grows
a fine variety of apples, pears, raspberries, and all small fruits. He has made grape
cultivation a specialty for some time. He was bora, in 1816, in Aberdeen, but since
1836 has been a resident of the County of Brant, where he is now well fixed in life.
His wife was Agnes Findley, bom in the County of Wellington, Ontario. They have
a family of seven children, viz., James A., Lizzie, William, George, Charles, John and
Martha. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the Presbyterian Church.
HENEY SMITH, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of Kent, England, was
bom June 10, 1825, and came to Canada with his father about the year 1830. He is
a son of John and grandson of John Smith, a native of Holland, who became a
British subject, and died in England at the age of 48 years. John Smith, his son,
was bom in Kent, England, and became a commissioned otficer in the British araiy.
He arrived in this Province at the date indicated above, first locating at New Ireland,
in the then Province of Lower Canada, and subsequently removed to the County of
Oxford, Upper Canada, where he finally settled. He married Barbara Ann Ashkett
Fellows, daughter of Henry Fellows, a native of London, England, who lived to the
advanced age of 101 years. The names of their family were John Stephen, Thomas,
Bobert, Heniy, George, Peter, Charles, William, Charlotte, Mary and Sarah. He
died February 17, 1837, at the age of 48. Henry Smith, of whom this biography is
written, was twice married — ^first, July 21, 1851, to Mary Ann Franklin, daughter of
Heniy Franklin, a native of England. The issue of this union was five children, as
follows : Sarah Jane, bom February 23, 1853 ; Mary, bom March 8, 1865 ; Beuben
Henry, boril September 1, 1857 ; Charles Sidney, bom August 1, 1860 ; John Thomas,
bom March 21, 1863. Mary Ann, his wife, died April 8, 1863. He next married,
July 24, 1864, Martha Ann Kirkby, daughter of John and granddaughter of Samuel
Kirkby, of England, and by their marriage had a family of nine children, viz., Charlotte
Ann, born September 22, 1865 ; Sophia, bom March 6, 1866 ; Barbara Ellen, bom
September 26, 1867 ; George Samuel, born March 1, 1869 ; Peter William, bom
March 13, 1871, died September 11, 1872; Martha C, bom Febmary 14, 1873;
Stephen David, bom November 3, 1875 ; James Edward, bom July 31, 1876 ; Robert
Walter, bom November 18, 1879. The* family adhere to the Baptist Church, of
which our subject is a member. Mr. Smith has prospered in the colony of his adop-
tion. He now owns a well stocked farm of 130 acres of well cultivated land, not five
600 HISTORY OF BRANT CX)UKTT.
miles from the City of Brantford, upon which he has oontinQoaslj resided siuce
settled in the county. Charles Sidney Smith, son of the above subject, married,
December 25, 1881, Eliza Ethel Smith, daughter of Edgar, granddaughter of Asa,
and great-granddaughter of Annias Smith, who formerly resided at Smithville, Wri-
land County, where he died at a good old age. Asa. his son, was bom at Grimsby,
County of Wentworth, and eventually came to this county. He married'and had two
children, Adolphus and Edgar. He is at present residing at Buffalo, N.Y. Edgar
Smith, son of the above, was bom August 27, 1844, near Cainsville, and as he grew
to manhood's estate adopted the trade of a blacksmith. He married Susan Morrison,
their issue being EliEa Ethel, wife of Charles Sidney, bom March 17, 1864 ; and Aaa^
l)orn August 8, 1868. After several years sojourn in Brantford he migrated to
Buffalo, where he now resides. The union of Charles Sidney and Ethel Smith is
blessed' with one child, Henry Edgar, bom November 12, 1882. Like his father,
Charles Sidney is a member of the Baptist denomination. He farms peat of the
homestead, and is enjoying a fair measure of prosperity.
JAMES SMITH, farmer, Scotland, P.O., was bora in 1840, in Scotland, Brant
County. His father was Jacob Smith, a native of Pennsylvania. He came to Canada
in 1812, and settled on the hrm now occupied by James. Here he died in 1853,
and is buried at Burford. James Smith married Anna Zimmerman, who was born in
1841 at Beamsville. They have two sons, viz., Welby and Wallace. They received
a common school education, and are enterprising and prosperous ; they work on some
75 acres of rented &rm. Mrs. Smith's &rm consists of 131 acres, pleasantly situated
and finely improved.
JAMES A. SMITH, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of George Smith, whose sketch
appears in this work. James was bom in the County of Brant in 1854. He was
raised to farm life, and acquired a common school education. In October, 1882, he
married Elizabeth McVicker, who was born and raised in this county. They both
belong to the Presbjrterian Church. In 1881 he was elected a member of the Town-
ship Council, in which capacity he still serves, and has risen .to be First Deputy Reeve.
He has a good farm, and for a young man his future looks bright
RICHAKD SMITH, farmer, Brantford Township, a native of England, was bom
Feb. 18, 1820. H^ was the son of Richard and grandson of Richard Smith, both of
whom died in England, the latter in 1836. Richard, father of our subject, was bom in
1786, and manied Mary Burton, aboa native of England, who was bom about the' year
1811. Their family numbered twelve, of whom Mary, Joseph, James, Richard, Leah
and Thomas, are living, and Jonathan, Margaret, Elizabeth, Christopher, Elijah and
Robinson, are dead. Richard, of whom we write, married May 5, 1851, Ann Walker,
daughter of William and Ann, and granddaughter of Henry Walker, all natives of
England, where William and Henry died. Hb children were fourteen in number, viz.:
Mary, bom Dec. 9, 1851 ; Maigaret, bom April 3, 1853, died May 12, 1860 ; Amelia,
bom Jan. 6, 1855; William, bom June 30, 1856, died in 1856 ; Samuel, bom June 1,
1857; Harriet, bom Nov. 4, 1859; Sophia, bom June 1, 1860 ; Salina, bom Feb. 21,
1862; Richard, bom Oct. 19, 1864; Elijah, bom Sept. 16, 1866; Sabina, bom Jan. 7,
1870; Robinson, born July 20, 1871 ; James, bom Jan. 11, 1874; Jonathan, bom
June 6, 1875, died in 1875. Mr. Smith is a prosperous farmer, owning 147 acres of
very valuable land in the township, about six miles from Brantford. The family belong
to the Church of England.
ROBERT H. SNYDER, fanner and stockraiser, Brantford P. O., was bom in
Wentwortl; County in 1839, and is a son of John Snyder, who was bom in Wentworth
County, 1814. His father, John Snyder, Jr., was a native of the State of Maryland,
and came to Canada in 1802. He settled in Halton County, and in 1848 in Brant
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 601
Coanty. In 1806 he married Jean Hunter, of Scotch descent. They were the parents
of nine children, John, the father of oar subject, being the only one living in this
county. He married Isabella MofiEatt, who was bom in Scotland, and died in this
county in 1879. They had six children, viz., John A., Robert H., Ellen, Magdalen,
Isabella and William D. Of this family Robert H. is the eldest son living, and since
1848 he has made Brant County his place of residence. He married Martha Likens,
who was raised in this county. They have eight children, viz., Isabella, William N.,
Maggie K, Orpha E., Mary L., John K, Carrie C. and Kester W. Mr. Snyder has 75
acres of well improved land, and since 1860 has devoted his time to stock-raising. In
1875, he went to Scotland, where he imported pure blooded stock, which is fiilly men-
tioned in this work. Robert Snyder, the grandfather of our subject, settled in Went-
worth County at an early day, and while there gave each of his three sons 100 acres of
land. After removing to Brantford he made a direct deed of gift of 75 acres to each of
his two grandsons, Robert receiving the old homestead.
WARREN SOVEREIGN, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Norfolk County, Canada,
in 1838. He was a son of Philip and Lavini (Jenny) Sovereign, natives of the States.
Mr. Sovereign came to Canada when only nine mouths old. His father settled ou
what was called Round Plain. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and witnessed
the progress of this county from an unsettled wilderness to its present condition. He
was the first to make a waggon track in' the county. Philip was a Despatch Mes-
senger in the War of 1812. Warren was the third son of Philip Sovereign, and mar-
ried, in 1863, Catherine, daughter of Dennis L. Dennis Mr. Sovereign came to Brant
County in 1847. He has one son, born February 3, 1877. He owns 50 acres, upon
which is being erected a reservoir for the supply of Paris. He is a Baptist.
HUGH SPENCER, farmer, Langford P. O., was bom in Lancashire, England, in
1819, and is a son of William and Bettie Spencer, both natives of England, where
they matured and married. In 1832 they thought that Canada should be their
future home, and accordingly came to Toronto, and to Brantford in 1835, where Wil-
liam and wife both died, die aged sixty-six years and he eighty years. On coming to
Brantford he erected a brewery where the China Hall is now located, being the first
brewery of any importance in the county. He operated it until about 1854. He
then engaged with his sons in a new brewery, where he remained a partner until his
death. Of his five children who came to Canada, Hugh is the third, and since Decem-
ber, 1834, he has been a resident of Brantford and vicinity. In 1847 Hugh and hi«
brother Thomas jointly rented a brewery, and in 1855 erected what is now known as
the Brantford Malting and Brewing Company's Building, the original buildings and
ground costing about $15,000. In 1867 Hugh retired, leaving the business to his
brother. His time was directed to merchandizing, but seven months later he lost all
by fire ; he then engaged in and very successfully conducted the manu^ture of pressed
brick and drain tile, and for the latter his yard was particularly known. In 1877 he
bought his present farm of 138 acres, well improved land, and he is now comfortably
dtuated. In 1843 he married Alice Fowler; she died in 1865, leaving four children.
Hugh subsequently married his first wife's eldest sister, who is also dead Mr. Spencer
has been one of the live go-ahead men in Brant County.
CHARLES STEWART, fanner, Brantford P.O., is a son of John and a grand-
son of George Stewart. The latter was of Qerman descent, a native of Pennsylvania,
where he lived many years, but about the close of the American Revolution he settled
near Hamilton, Ontario, where he and wife both died. Of their five sons John was one,
and was bom near Hamilton towards the close of the last century, but died near Dun-
das during the War of 1812, in which he was a patriot, leaving one child, whose
name Heads this sketch. John's wife was Sarah, daughter of George Rymal, and a
36
602 filSTORY OP BRANT COUNTY.
bativ^ 6f the States, but she died near London, Oni. Charles is the only survivor of
ibis family, and he was bom near Dondas in 1812, and remained in Went worth County
Until 1848, since which he has lived on his present farm of 50 acres. He wa« raised to
farm life, which he has always followed. His education was acquired in the common
tehools of his day. In 1833 he married Ann, daughter of Rev. David Culp ; she was
t)om near Grimsby, and died in 1847, where Charles now lives. Her two children were
Sarah and Margaret J. Charles' second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of William
Swartz ; she was born in Princeton. Their children are Ellen, William L., Geoi^
(teacher) and Hettie A. The family belong to the C. M. Church. All that Mr,
Stewart has is the result of his own efforts.
RICHABD STOEY, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Lancashire, England,
October 29th, 1827, and is a son of Isaac and Phoebe (Patrickson) Story, both natives
of England. Of their children, Richard was the fourth. He received his education in
his native country, and at one time owned a large business ; but his health being poor,
he was induced to remove to Canada, which he did in 1868. He bought a farm of
308 acies in Brant County, and settled in Brantford, where he carried on the manufac-
turing of cigars for two years. He died August 16th, 1879, a retired citizen. He was
married in 1855 to Elenor, daughter of John Wilkinson. She was born in England, in
1830, but from 1868 was a resident of Brant County. They were the parents of eight
"children. The two eldest sons and son-in-law have charge of the farm, and Mrs. Stoiy
«till owns property in Brantford.
JAMES SUMLER, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom Febraary 10th, 1821, in
Hampshire, England ; he is a son of George Sumler, who was bom and matured in
England. He married Jane Bartiett. of the same place, and removed to Caibuia in 1835
witn nine children, settling in Brant County. Of this family James was the eldest son.
He came to Canada in 1835, stopping in the Lower Provinces, where he began life for
himself. He came to Brant County in 1838 ; learned a trade, but did not follow it long.
He became a land-owner in 1853, and now has a fine estate. In 1844 Mr. Sumler mar-
ried Lucy Cropp, who was a native of England. This union has been blessed with ten
children, viz. : David Edmund, born April 30th, 1845 ; William Henry, bom October
24th, 1847 ; Mary, bora November llth, 1849 ; Arthur, born May 24th, 1852 ; Jane,
born April 24th, 1854 ; Eliza, born April 27thy 1856 ; Maria, bom November 5thy
1858 ; Lucy, born March 22nd, 1861 ; James, born Apnl 29th, 1863 ; Elizabeth, bom
April 23rd, 1865.
W. H. SUMLER, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bora in Brant County in 1847 ;
he is H son of James Sumler, who was bom in 1821, in England. He came to Canada
with his parents in 1838, and settled in this county, where he followed farming through
life, becoming; owner of a large estate. He marric^d Lucy, daughter of William Cropp,
a native of Reading. Berkshire, fclngland. They were the parents of ten childiien, of
whom six are living, W. H. Sumler being the eldest. Mr. Sumler has a Una of 110
acres, and devotes his time to stock-raising principally. He married Orpha J., daughter
of Justus Yauderlip. Thtj children by this marriage are Mary L., Frederick K, and
Earnest A.
WILLIAM TENNANT, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Canada, September 27th,
1849. He was a son of the late John and Margaret (McKinley) Tennant, natives of
Scotland, who emigrated to Canada in 1833, settling permanently in 1839 on the lot
now occupied by his widow. This land was wild in appearance, and was located at
that time in the old Gore District, Mr. Tennant's deed being among the first issued.
His was an improved or squatter's right, for which he paid the remaining amount
due the Government. He was bom in 1800, and married his first wife, Ellen
Dalgleish, in 1833. She was in Lord Napier's family before her marriage ; her father
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 603
bad charge of the land belonging to that nobleman. After the death of Mrs. Ten-
mant, Mr. Tennant married, in 1846, Margaret McKinley, William, our subject, being
s, child of this union. He married, September 22nd, 1880, Elizabeth Malcolm, by
whom he has one child, John Leslie, bom September 1st, 1881. William Tennant is
now living on the old homestead, consisting of 150 acres and supplied with good
l>uilding8. Mr. John Tennant was Councillor for six years and Assessor several years ;
he took delight in good stock ; he was Captain in the Militia, and President of the
South Brant Agricultural Society. He died December 22nd, 1878. He and his
family were Presbyterians, in which church Mr. Tennant was an Elder before his
death.
GARRETT TERHUNE, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom April 13th, 1823, in
New Jersey, and is a son of Gilliam and Mary (Roome) Terhune, and a grandson
of Albert and Mary (YanRiper) Terhune. Mr. Terhune came to Canada with his
parents in 1836, and settled in Norfolk County with his grandfather, Albert Terhune.
His father was bom November 4, 1790, and married January 9, 1813, Mary Roome,
who was born March 25, 1792. They were the parents of seven children, named
Ann, bom March 28, 1814; Albert, bom March 30, 1816; Samuel, bom Sep. 9,
1819, died March 24, 1873; John, bom Jan. 18, 1826, died August 29, 1848;
Peter, bom March 4, 1829; and Abraham, bom Oct. 15, 1831, died February 21,
1849. Garrett Terhune was married twice, his firR( wife being Olive Josephine,
<laughter of Frederick Dresser, of American descent ; she died April 11, 1859, leaving
six children, named Sarah C, Mary J., Susan C, Agnes S., Harriet A. (dead), and
Emma L. He married again Aug. 29, 1860, Angeline A., daughter of Timothy Fair-
child, w^o was bom Nov. 30, 1835, by whom he had three children — Frederick W.,
Lucy C. and John F. Mr. Terhune holds the position of Justice of the Peace, and is
4U1 Elder in Zion Church, Brantford.
THOMAS TERRIS, gardener, Brantford P.O., is thd junior partner of the firm of
Wyle & Terris, proprietors of Eagle Park Garden. The gentleman whose name
heads this sketch was bom in the County of Fife, Scotland, in 1846. He was raised
in his native county, and served his time as an apprentice in gardening. In 1871 he
married Barbara Gunn, a native of Scotland, and the same year they came to Canada,
stopping at Toronto, where he worked in Leslie & Son's Nursery until 1876, when he
came to Brantford and became a partner with Mr. Wyle. The fruit of Mr. and
Mrs. Terris' union is one child, Christina.
ABRAM THOMAS, retired, Brantford P.O., is a son of Jonathan E. Thomas, who
was bom in the State of Vermont, May 23, 1793. He was raised to shoemakingand
farming. On April 13, 1817, he married Elizabeth Vincent at Saratoga Springs; she
was bom December 26, 1796. They settled in South Dumfries in 1819, having at the
time one child. They remained residents of the county until their death ; his
occurred September 29, 1860, and hers on April 25, 1869. They were both members
of the Canada Methodist <]!hurch. He was through life a farmer, and cleared up
two hundred acres of land from its original state. He was a stout, hearty and ener*
getic man. His life was marked with military services during the War of 1812, and
he was present at the burning of Buffalo. He and wife haS eleven children, viz.:
James, bom July 28, 1818 (deceased); Hannah, bom November 18, 1820 (dec^«ed);
John, bom July 9» 1822 (deceased); Abram, born December 16, 1824 ; Joseph D.,
bom August 17, 1827 (deceased); Louise, bom Feb. 2, 1830 ; Sarah M., bom Feb.
29, 1832; George, bom Feb. 13, 1834 (deceased); Sidney, bom Aug. 15, 1836;
Martha, bom December 3, 1838 (deceased); Cinthian, bom June 26, 1843 (deceased).
Louise and Sarah both live in Michigan, and Sidney and Abram still reside in their
native county. Abram has been a life-long resident and farmer of the County of
604 HISTORY OF BRAUT COUNTY.
Brant, where he now owns 226^ acres of land, after giving each of his children a good
education. He started in life with no means at all, but a strong heart and willing
hands, coupled with economy, have placed him among the leading well-to-do citizens of
the county. He was married February 7, 1847, to Amanda Hawley, who was bom
in the County of Brant, February 8, 1829, and by whom he has a family of seven
children, viz., Elizabeth A., Uriel S., George W., Maria A., Eugene A., and two died
in infancy. Mrs. Thomas is a daughter of Harvey Hawley, who was bom in Connec-
ticut, November 16, 1807 ; when a child his parents settled near the Brant Methodist
Church on the Hamilu>n Koad, where Harvey was raised. He lived in this county
until 1854, when he moved to Michigan. He was a &rmer through life until the last
few years, and now lives retired. He and wife had a family of sixteen children, fifteen
of whom grew up, and all except the youngest son became heads of families. Four-
teen of the &mily are now living, of whom Mrs. Thomas is the eldest. She is a grand-
daughter of Daniel Hawley, who was a native of the States, and was the son of a
Revolutionary soldier. Daniel and family came to Canada in 1809, settling near
Fairchild's Creek, Brant M. E. Church.
WALTER THOMPSON, farmer, Brantford Township, was bom in Norfolk County.
Ont, in December, 1850, and subsequently located in this county upon the farm where
he now resides. He was a son of William Thompson, a native of England, who died
here in September, 1872. The^ latter married Marjory Dodd, of English descent, and
had a family of eight children — one, Mary, being now dead, and Margaret, John, Isa-
bella, William, Ajana, Walter and Joseph still siirviving. Walter, of whom this
biography is written, married, July 19, 1876, Betsy Jane Lewis, daughter of Charlea
and granddaughter of Isaac Warren Lewis, a native of Pennsylvania, who, with hia
son, settled in the County of Haldimand, Vhere the latter now resides. They have
four of a family, viz., Clara B., bom July 19, 1877 ; Charles David, bom March 9,
1879 ; Aquila, Oct 24, 1880, died Feb. 27, 1882 ; Marjory May, bom Dec. 1, 1882.
They are members of the Methodist body. Mr. Thompson is in prosperous circum-
stances, and owns a fine farm of 79 acres, which is under a high state of cultivation.
It is located six miles south of Brantford.
GEORGE H. TISDALE, farmer, Paris R O., was bom in Brantfoid Township
in the year 1849. He is a son of Joseph C. Tisdale, whose sketch appears elsewhere
in this work. On March 29, 1881, he married Miss Agnes May Findlay, daughter of
John Findlay, a native of Scotland. Mr, Tisdale is engaged in farming ihe home£urm
A complete sketch of his parents iftid grandparents will be found in this volume.
JOSEPH CLEODEN TISDALE, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in the County
Norfolk, Ontario, July 25th, 1813. He was a son of Joseph and Margaret (Laurence)
Tisdale, natives of New Brunswick. Joseph, the eldest of ten children, came to Brant-
ford Township in 1839, and married, April 2nd, 1846, Miss Rachel Carpenter, who
was bom in the Connty of Wentworth. They had a family of six children, five of
whom are living, viz., Joseph C, Jr., George H., Herbert Tm, Walter C. and Margaret
H., all living in Brant County but one, who is in the States. Mr. Tisdale was a
cavalry soldier in the Rebellion of 1837, under Capt. Wilson. He afterwards received
a commission as Ensign in the war. He came to this country with only a few dollars,
but by industry and careful attention to business he has acquired 125 acres of valu-
able forming land, and all the comforts of a pleasant home. He is an adherent of the
English Church, and a Conservative in politics.
JOHN Y. TOWNSEND, fiurmer. Mount Vemon P.O , is a son of Peter and grand-
son of John Townsend, who fled to New Bmnswick during the Revolution of 1776.
The subject of this sketch was bom September 14th, 1817, in New Brunswick, on the
banks of the Hammond River, and came to this county in 1838 with his fother, who
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHKS. 605
married Sophia, daughter of John Gidmy, of English descent, but whose forefathers
-were among the early settlers of New York State. He was the second of five children,
the others being Henry, Margaret A., Elmer A. and Frederick O. He married,
March 7 th, 1877, Mary A. , granddaughter of John Lloyd-Jones, of the House of Plas-
madoc, an old estate in North Wales. She was bom in Canada, October 27th, 1838.
Mr. Townsend is now owner of 180 acres of land, pleasantly situated on the London
Itoad ; he is a Conservative in politics and an adherent of the English Church, as were
his ancestors.
HENRY TUFFORD, mechanic, Brantford P.O., was bom in Lincoln County,
December 18th, 1821, and is a son of John Tufford, who was bom in New Jersey.
He married Mary Konkle, a native of the States, who at the age of five removed to
Oanada, where she died at the age of eighty-five years. John Tufford died near St,
Oatharines in 1860. They were the parents of five children, Henry being the fourth.
He was raised to farm life, and married in 1844. In 1874 he came to this county,
where he now owns i70 acres of i%ell improved land situated in Grand River Valley,
formerly known as the Springbank Farm. Mr. Tufford has devoted a part of his
life to threshing, and now owns two machines. He is an industrious, well-to-do
^tizen, having ten children to cheer him in his old age.
£. W. YANDERLIP, fanner, Langford P.O., is a son of E^iward and a grandson of
William Vanderlip. The latter was born in Nova Scotia. He participated in the
War of Independence, and subsequently came to Canada, where he married Elizabeth,
<laughter of John Weaver, and settled in Went worth County, where he died in 1840.
He was a strong hearty man of large frame. Their children were Edward, Frederick,
James, William, Nancy and Jane, who were all born in Wentworth County. Jane
married and settled in Brant County, where she died. Edward, the eldest son, was
bom in 1793, and became a patriot in the War of 1812, from his native county. Soon/
«fter the close of this war he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Langs, and im-
mediately settled in what is now Brant County, where he followed farming until his
'death. Hia widow still survives at the age of 91 years.. Edward became the owner of
a large tract of land, near the present site of Langford, which he transformed from a
dense wilderness to productive fields. His ability gave him rank among the Idading
citizens of the township, and he was repeatedly elected a member of the Council
His administration as Magistrate marked the last twelve years of his life. He suc-
ceeded Andrew Westbrook as Captain of a company of Militia* He was of fair size
and good health, a hard worker and close observer, who succeeded well in all hia
undertakings. He and wife had a family of nine children, viz., Catherine, John, Ira, an
infant (deceased), Edward W., Emma, Justus, James J. an<l Martha. Catherine resides
in ^'^entwprth County; all the rest live in Brant County. Of the family El ward W. is
the fifth, alid was bom in 1823, in Brant County, where he now has a farm of 90 acres,
well improved and under good cultivation. He was raised to farm life, which he has
mostly .followed. His education was obtained in the common schools, and he received the
4ippointment of Magistrate about 1868, which ofiice he continues to hold. His mar-
triage was celebrated in 1845 with Balsora, daughter of Andrew Westbrook. She was
bom in Brant County in 1826, and was a granddaughter of Major John Westbrook.
Mr. and Mrs. Vanderlip are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch, to which
they have belonged for thirty-two years, and in which he has held various offices. Their
fanuly conaisto of Ellen, Emma (died, aged two years), James W., Peter F. and Maiy.
'The latter died at the age of twenty-four years.
G. G. VANDERLIP, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of Addison Vanderlip, who
^ras bora in New York Stete in 1807, being brought to Canada in 1815, and left
tfjBitherlesa when a boy nine or ten years old. He was brought up to farm life, which he
606 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
his always followed^ and now owns a good farm of 678 acres. The possession of
this land, and its improved condition, ai-e the results mostly of his ownilffbrtB. In an
early day he attended a great many log-rolling and com-hnsking bees, where he wis
the life of the crowd, as he was always witty and jolly. His father, John, was of
Gterman descent, and married Lucinda Tattle, and both died in Canada. Addison waa
married to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob File. She died in February, 1879, and wa»
the mother of nine children, eisrht of whom are still living. In order to show the rela-
tion this family have to other Yanderlip families, we deem it well to state that John
Yanderlip, above mentioned, was a brother to William VanderUp, mentioned in K W.
Vanderlip's sketch. The subject of this sketch was bom June 9, 1832, in Brant
County, where he was raised to farm life, and acquired a common school edacatiou.
In 1869 he commenced teaching, which he followed several years; but for quite a time
he has been representing the marble firm of Hurd & T?olH*rts, of Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1857 he married Maria, daughter of Isaac and «: rand daughter of Solomon Day.
She was born in 1837, and died November 2, 1870. They had three children — Eliza-
beth A., Susan J., and Creoige £.
JOHN VANDERLIP, retired, Brantford P.O., is a son of Edward Vanderlip
elsewhere mentioned in this volume. John was born in the County of Brant, March
27, 1816, and was raised to farm life, which he followed until 1878, when he sold his-
fann and retired, settling in Brantford. He is a man of good size, and possesses good
health. He and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in
which he has served as class-leader, and for a number of years licensed as a local
minister. On February 28, 1841, he married Susan C. Young, who was bom in 1821,
near St. Catharines. Her father, Peter Young, was an early settler in that vicinity.
JUSTUS VANDERLIP, farmer, Cainsville P.O., brother to K W. Yanderlip,.
whose sketch appears elsewhere, is the sixth child of his father's &mily, and was bom
in Brant County in 1828. He was raised to farm life, and has always followed that
pursuit, but fourteen years were spent in another county. He now owns a good
farm near Cainsville, which is pleasantly situated. He was married in 1851 to Ruth
Howell of Jersey ville, Wentworth County, Canada. To this union five children have-
been given, four of whom are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Yanderlip are members of
the Methodist Church.
WILLIAM WAGHORN, brick manufacturer, Newport, a native of Kent County,
England, was bom Jan. 18th, 1849, and came to Canada July 31st, 1870. He is a.
son of John and Frances (Ware) Waghom, and a grandson of John Waghom, all
natives of England. He married, Nov. 7th, 1869, Eliza O'Connor, daughter of
Francis and Mary (Cokeley) O'Connor, who came to Canada and settled in this county
in 1871. Their family numbered nine children, viz.: Frances A., bom Fek 4th,
1870 ; Eva, bom June 9th, 1872 ; William, bom July 21st, lb73, died June 29th,.
1874 ; John, bom Dec. 26th, 1875 ; Mary, bom Oct. 14th, 1877 ; Willie, bom May
15th, 1879; Eliza, bom Oct. 11th, 1880, died April 8th, 1881; Clara, bom Feb.
21st, 1882 ; Frank, bom April 11th, 1883. Mr. Waghom is engaged extensively in
the manufacture of brick at the Yillage of Nei^-port, turoing out nearly three-quarters,
of ^ a million annually, and consumes about 350 cords of wood in the process. He is
also the owner of 25 acres of good land adjoining the brick-yard. He is a member
of the Independent Order of Foresters, an adherent of the Church of England, and
is prospering finely in his undertakings.
GEORGE WATERS, Mount Yernon P.O., was born Dec. 26, 1812, in New York
State. His father, Geo. W. Watem, was a native of England. His mother, Olive-
Gunn, was a native of Massachusetts. Our subject was brought up a farmer, having;
in early life been apprenticed to the tanning and currier trade, but git>wing dissatia-
BIOQ&APmCAL 8KSTCH1& 607
Ibd with his employer, left. Startmg in life for himself, he acquired a cpmpetency
m the shape of 270 aciea of the most fertile land in this ooonty. Mr. Waters has
been engaged in a variety of pursuits, among which may be mentioned livery and
staging, the tin and copper trade, and keeping a hotel, which was situated in Paris.
He married Azuba, daughter of Henry Seijeant, of the State of Illinois, in 1852. He
had come to Canada in 1832, remaining ten years. He returned to New York State,
and manying in the State of Indiana, returned to Canada in 1852 to remain perma-
nently, and has been a citizen of this county ever since. He is a man of libeial charac-
ter, and a patron of anything that tends to the advancement of his adopted county.
He receivcMl a limited education in Herkimer County, N.Y., and has, by his indomit-
able pluck and business tact, acquired his home, surrounded by all that goes to make
a home comfortable and pleasant
JOHN WAT£RHOUSE, deceased, was a son of William Waterhouse, who was of
English descent, and died in the United States. John was bom in 1801, and died
in the County of Brant in 1869. He grew up in his native country (XT. S.), where he
married Joanna Strickland. They came to Canada with four children about 1840,
settling in Eagle's Nest, and at this place his wife died about 1847. His second
wife was Mary A. McGroldrick, who was bom in Ireland in 1803. Mr. Waterhouse
continued farming through Hfe, never aspiring to any official honours. He owned at
his death 200 acretf of land, which he had acquired by industry and economy. He
was a member of the Baptist Church. Seven of his children are living, viz., Henry,
Elizabeth, Margaret, John, Katie, Minnie and Hosa, the last four by the second wife.
Mrs. Waterhouse is a daughter of John McGroldrick, who was raised and married in
Ireland, and about 1840 came with his family to Canada, settling in Brantford in the
year 1851, where he and wife both died, leaving as the fruit of their union eight
children, seven of whom are now living.
ALEXANDER THOMAS WATSON, teacher, Cainsville, was bom in the County
of Simcoe, Township of Tecumseh, January 19, 1846. He attended the Bradford
Grammar School for a year, and afterwards the Normal School of Toronto, where he
received a certificate as teacher, and was engaged in the Model for part of a term. At
the expii-ation of his Normal School coui*se he taught school in the State of Illinois,
and afterwards was an associate teacher in High Point Academy, North Carolina.
Returning to Canada, he took charge of the Langford School for a period of seven
years, and is now head teacher of the Cainsville SchooL The two last schools under
his instruction have had the reputation of being the best conducted, and certainly the
pupils under his charge are the best trained in elocution of any school in the county.
His elocutionary acquirements, outside of a natural adaptation, were obtained under
the instractions of Professor A. Mellville Bell, a man of world-wide reputation, and
father of A. G. BeU, the inventor of the Bell Telephone. The father of our subject^
John, was bom in l^rone County, Ireland, in 1809, where he married Margaret Scott,
who was bom in 1812, in the same county, and came to Canada in 1834, and settled
in Simcoe County. After living in various places in Ontario, he finally settled in St.
Mary's, where he now resides at the ripe old age of 74 years, esteemed and respected
by all who know him. Our subject has followed the avocation of teacher for a period
of 19 years, and his services are held in high estimation, not only as school teacher,
but as an instructor in elocution, having had several of the teachers of the county
apply to him for lessons in that science. In connection with the school under his
charge, he has procured one of the best museums of natural curiosities to be found in
the Province, embracing specimens in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.
JAMES B. WaUGH, carpenter, Brantford P.O., was bom in June, 1849, at
Ancaster, Out., and is a son of James and a grandson of Thomas Waugh. The latter
608 HISTORY. OF BRANT COUNTY.
followed farming in Canada through life. He married Julia Emerj, a native of
Brock ville, Canada. They settled and lived in the County of Went worth, where he
died. Of their family, James was the eldest, and was horn in Wentworth County in
1820. He married Lydia Stinabaugh, who was born in Ancaster in 1823. She was
a daughter of John Stinabaugh. They have a family of seven children, of which
James B. is the eldest living. He married Miss A. Barbery, who was bom in West-
minster. She died in this county, leaving three children. Mr. Waugh has made
carpentering his vocation through life.
GEORGE W. WE8TBRO0K, retired, Cainsville P.O., was bom in the County of
Brant, August 7, 1840 ; he is a son of Peter and Martha (Langs) Westbiook, a grand-
son of John and Elizabeth (Gage) Westbrook, and a great-grandson of Anthony and
Sarah Westbrook. Martha Langs was a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Fowler)
Langs. The subject of this sketch was raised as a farmer, and obtained his education
at the common schoqls of Cainsville. On March 27, 1866, he married Elizabeth,
daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Westbrook) ^hepard, and a granddaughter of
William and Elizabeth (Salmons) Shepard, natives of the United States, of Dutch
descent. William and Elizabeth Shepard were the parents of five sons — ^Migor,
Benjamin, James, John and DeWitton. Our subject by his marriage has had four
children, namely : Lloyd L., bom March 4, 1867, now a student at the Coll^pate In-
stitute of Brantford; Major H., born Dec. 16, 1868; Elizabeth M. M., bom May 13,
1872; and Martha M., bom Jan. 19, 1875. Mr. Westbrook is a man of lai^ stature
and commanding presence, standing six feet four inches high in his bare feet, and pos-
sessing a Ggure in keeping with his height. He was brought up in the faith of the
Church of England, and is a Conservative in politics. Throughout his business life he
has engaged in several different avocations, includint; farming and hotel keeping, but
has now retired from active life in the enjoyment of a comfortable competency. His
natural business qualifications and his agreeable manners have made him a favourite in
all circles, both business and social, and his friends are legion. He holds a commission
in the Brantford Militia as Lieutenant. The publishers of this work are indebted to
him for valuable information furnished, and for assistance rendered them in the pro-
duction of the History of Brant County.
LEVI W. WESTBROOK, farmer, Langford P.O., was bom, in 1839, in this
county, and is. a son of James Westbrook. Levi Westbrook was raised on a fann«
and in 1865 married Sarah Erwin, who was bom in Brant County, August 6, 1846.
They have one child, Orpha F. Mr. Westbrook owns a farm of 96 acres. He at
present is Tax Collector in his township.
PETER WESTBROOK, retired, Cainsville P.O., is a son of Major John Westbrook,
who was bom in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary War. When but seven years
old, he, with his elder brother Alexander, while out oow-hunting, were captured by the
Mohawk Indians and carried off into Canada. After quite a long stay with the Mo-
hawks, learning their language and many traits common to that tribe, they were traded
to the United States Government for provisions, and being returned to their parents,
persuaded them to come to Canada. Their father, Anthony, soon agreed to join them
in a return trip to Canada, where the sons had no doubt formed favourable opinions of the
Mohawks, as John purchased of Captain Brant a laige tract of land. Alexander, the
one son, settled in Oakland, but Anthony and his other son settled on Fairchild's
Creek, where he died. John was a stout, hearty man, able to withstand all the hard-
ships he might have to encounter, in early days attending mill at Niagara, and passed
through all the principal battles in the War of 1812. ^Hirough his whole life he was
closely associated with Capt. Brant, they being warm friends. He married Elizabeth
Gage, of Hamilton. She died aged 81 years, and he 76. They had a family of six*
BlOQRAi*HICAL SKETCHES. 609
teen children, two of whom died in infancy, but fourteen, whose names follow, matured
and became heads of families: Mary, bom 1797; Andrew, bom 1798; Sarah, bom
1800; James, born 1802; Peter, bom 1804; Elizabeth, bom 1807 ; Alexander, bom
1808; Dolly, bom 1810; Lang, bom 1812; Hester, bom 1813; Levi, bom 1815 ; Jane,
bom 1817 ; Lydia, born 1821 ; and Phoebe, bom 1823. The eldest of the family still
soryives. Peter, the fifth, and subject of this sketch, grew to maturity on his father^s
fai-m, which he helped to clear and improve. His school privileges were few, but, by
economy of time and personal efforts, he acquired a fnir education. He matured and
has always resided in his native county, now retired at Cainsville, after accumulating
a neat competency. In 1832 be married Martha Langs, a native of Canada, bom in
1807. On November 27, 1882, they celebrated their "golden wedding" with appro-
priate entertainment. Their children, four in number, are Harriet, Jane, Martha
{deceased), and George. Those living are married, and residents of their native county.
Jane, his daughter, married John Orr, a son of James Orr, a native of Ireland, and has
four children: Lilian, bom Sept. 5, 1864; Eddie E., bom Jan. 14, 1867; Earnest,
bom Jan. 8, 1870 ; Albert, bom »lay 25, 1872.
TRUMAN W. WESTBROOK, farmer, Langford P.O., is a son of James, and
grandson of Major John Westbrook. James was bom in the present limits of Brant
County in 1802, and died on December 6, 1854, aged iifby-two years. He was of large
frame, broad-chested, strongly constituted, and a well proportioned man, He followed
farming and hotel-keeping through life. His wife was Lavina, daughter of Jacob
Langs. She was bom and died in Brant County. Their children are Cynthia, James,
Elizabeth, Catharine, Lemon, Mary, Levi, Truman W., Marsha H., Phoebe J., and
Andrew. The first two and last named are deceased. Imman W. was bom in 1841,
received a common school education, and grew up to farm life, which he has since
followed, and now he owns a good home of ninety and a half acres. He takes special
pains in raising good horses. His wife was Phoebe, daughter of Samuel and Dolly
Ervin, who was bom on the farm Thomas now owns. Her father was the first per-
manent settler on the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook have one son, James W.
WILKERSON D. WESTBROOK, farmer, Cainsville P.O., is a grandson of Major
John Westbrook, and a son of Captain Andrew and Mary (Diamond) Westbrook.
Andrew was a native and life-long resident and farmer of Brant County. Wilkerson
was bom in Br&nt County, February 4th, 1832 ; was raised to farm life, which he has
always followed, and now owns a good farm. He acquired a common school education,
which has lieen put to practice in discharging duties in the Canada Methodist Church,
to which he has belonged for twenty years, and in which for fifteen years he has been
a class-leader. On April 11th, 1860, he married Eliza Howell; she was bom in
Wentworth County, March 24th, 1842, and died December 17th, 1873, being the
mother of eight children. Mr. Westbrook's second wife . was Rachel, daughter of
Samuel and Ann Both well, in 1876 ; she was bom in County Down, Ireland, May
Ist^ 1841. To this union two children have been given. Of Mr. Westbrook's family,
eig^t children are living, viz., Lillie, David, Jessie, Victoria, Anthony, Agnes, Samuel
and John W. The two deceased are Frederick, bom January- 17th, 1870, died Janu-
ary 2l8t, 1872 ; and Anna, bom June 11th, 1873, died September, 1873.
WILLIAM WHEELER, famier, Brantford Township, a native of England, came
to Canada with his mother in 1833, and is the son of William and Sarah (Specials)
Wheeler, the former a native of Sussex and the latter of Kent, England, where the
elder Wheeler died. The mother of our subject had six children — ^l^omas, William,
Oharles, Elizabeth, Mary, Ann and Maria. William Wheeler, of whom this sketch
is written, was bom on the 19th of March, 1826, and married, January 10th, 1849,
Elizabeth Secord, daughter of Asa, and granddaughter of Daniel Secord, a native of
I
610 msroBT of brant couhtt.
New BroDSwick, who oame to this coanty, where he died. The children of Uiis
riage were : Wiliiam, bom November 6th, 1849 ; Ab% bom August 31tt» 1852 f
Lymaiiy bom Jannaiy 16ih, 1854 ; Chariea, bom April 4th, 1858 ; M*j, bom May
14th, 1859, died May 19th, 1859 ; Thomas, bom Jaly 28th, 1861 ; Edith, bom OcCo-
ber 23rd, 1862, died June 21, 1863 ; Smith, bom June 28th, 1866 ; Saiah M., bon.
May 17th, 1868. Mr. Wheeler and family are Baptist& He owns 50 acrea of weB
cultivated land five miles from the city, and is in prosperous circnmstanoes.
JOSEPH WHETMAN, a native of Germany (Wurtembei^) ; left that contiy
September 12th, 1843 ; arrived at New York December 6th. Was raised in tli&
milling business, and followed the same until he came to America ; not knowing the
English language, he followed other pursuits. Game to Canada in 1845 ; first settled
at Paris, then at Mount Vernon, where he commenced farming, and then manufawv
tuiing by steam staves, headings, barrels, shingles, etc. His business emplojra from
ten to thirty men, according to the demand. His father was a native of Germany,
and died in that country. Joseph was married, October 12th, 1848, to Maigaret^
daughter of Laurence Bumcs, a native of Ireland. On her moth^s side her grand-
father's name was David Pnca They were the parents of five children, as follows :
Maggie (married John E. Mc Williams ; they had one child named Florence ; Maggie
died Oct. 12, 1874), James, Celia, Julia and Elizabeth, who married F. D. Mitchell,
Paris. Mr. Whetman and family belong to the Methodist Church of Canada., fie
has been School Trustee and Secretary-Treasurer for a number of years ; also has held
the office of Treasurer of the Masonic Lodge, Burford, since 1874. He is an industri-
ous, enterprising man, making a success of his business ; he is always liberal towards
any work that has for its object the advancement of his adopted country.
DAVID WHITE, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom in Nova Scotia, March 2ath, 1818.
He was a son of Timothy and Mattie (Porter) White, natives of the United States^
who took advantage of the British land grant of Nova Scotia after the War of 1812.
In their family of twelve children, David was the only one who came to Canada.
He came in 1841, landed at Port Dover, on Lake Erie, and from there came by
laud to this county, where he settled on his present premisea He married in 1841 Miss
Love Rand, of Nova Scotia. Mr. White had but little means to commence with, but has
always been successful in life. He had a family of twelve children, ten of whom are
living, viz., Maiy^aret, William R., Amasa B., Mattie, Sarah, Caroline, David A., Both,
Judson J., and John M. — all married but twa Mr. White is now 65 years of age, and
has a strong constitution.
DANIEL WHITING, farmer, Cainsville P.O., is a son of John and a brother of
Isaac Whiting, whose history appears el^where in this work. Daniel istheeighih of
the family, and was bom in Brant County in 1840. He was raised to farm life, and
acquired a common school education. Farming has always been his pursuit, and he
now owns a good home on Fairchild's Creek. His ability has given him rank among
the leading citizens, and for two yean he has been a member of the Township ConnciL
In 1866 he married Susanna McCartney, a native of Ireland, bom in 1845, bat since
1850 a resident of Brant County. Mr. Whiting and wife have a family of seven
children.
ISAAC WHITING, farmer, Cainsville P.O., is a son of John and grandsoo of
Isaac Whiting, the latter being of English descent and a United Empire Loyalist
from Pennsylvania, who died in Brant County, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in
his native county, where he entered in and served through the Revolutionary War.
He subsequently married Mary Cooley in Vermont, after which they settled, probably
in 1795, in what is now Norfolk County, Canada, but very soon after came- into the
present limits of Brant County, where they ever after remained, enduring many
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 611
privations that could probably be only properly related by those who passed through
them. He was a short, heavy-set, full-chested and strongly constituted man, and at
the time of his death had cleared up his first settled farm, on which he spent over
half a century. He and his wife both died in Brant County, having had a family of
ten children, viz., Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Anna, Lovina, Susan, Lucy, Matthew^
John and Samuel. Of the entire fainily all' save two are now dead. Matthew became
a prominent minister of the Wesleyan Methodists in the county. John, the &ther
of our subject, was bom in Brant County in 1801. He was reared to &rm life, and
acquired a fair education. His association with the municipal affairs of the township
and county made him one of Brant's well-informed citizens. He served repeatedly in
the Town Council, and as a Justice of the Peace a number of years. In 1823 ho
married Rachel Barton, who was bom in Yates County, New York, August 2nd,
1804, and came with her father, Daniel, to Canada in 1821. In 1831 John Whiting*
and wife embraced the religion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which they
walked until death. She died Nov. 7th, 1880, and he, July 7th, 1882 ; their children
were ten in number, viz., Mary, Jane, Ann, Delilah, Matthew, Isaac, Amelia, Daniel,
John, and Elizabeth, all now living. Of the family, Isaac, the second son, was bom
in Brant County in 1835 ; he has always resided in his native county, save three years
in Oxford, and while there followed lumbering. From 1873 to 1876 he was engaged
in the mercantile trade in Hartford, Norfolk County. Since the last date given he
has resided on his present farm of 100 acres. In June, 1860, he married Janet
McNaughton, who was born in Scotland, and in 1845 came with her father, who
was an extensive farmer of Dumfries County, to Canada. They have seven children,
viz., Jessie, John A., Rachel, Charles, Daniel, Agnes and William, all of whom aro
living.
£. H. WILCOX, manufacturer of cheese, Cains ville P.O., is a native of Norfolk
County, Ontario, bom in 1858, and is a son of Edward S. and Lucy M. (Durphy|
Wilcox, who were both natives of Canada. They were married in the birUi county
of our subject, where Edward S. died in 1871, and the widow still survives. Of
their six children, E H. is the eldest son, and was raised to farm life in connection
with the business he now represents. In January, 1882, he came to Cainsville, and
bought the cheese factory of that place. Soon siter purchasing it he added steam
works to it. In 1878 he married Alice, daughter of Isaac Nelles, Senr., of Went-
worth County. They had one child, Isaac £., who died February 20th, 1882, aged
eighteen months.
FRANK WILSON, farmer, Newport, was bom Jan. 6th, 1854, and was a son of
Greorge aftd grurdson of George WilsoQ, a native of Yorkshire, England. The father
of our subject came from England to this county in the year 1842, and died April 28,
1875. He married Eachel Ellis, and had a family of eleven children, of whom Mary,
Hannah, James, Joseph, Edwin, Henry, Emma, Frank and Sarah are living, and
Robert and Elizabeth are dead. Frank, of whom we write, married. May 24, 1876»
Margaret Leeming, daughter of James and granddaughter of Robert Leeming, a native
of England, who settled in this county, where he died. Two children are the issue of
this marriage— Edith May, bom May 27, 1878, and George Wellington, Nov. 1, 1882.
Mr. Wilson is a successful farmer, owning an excellent farm of 140 acres, and a fine
stock of high gra le cattle and Leicester sheep. The farm is about five miles from
Brantford, upon which his father settled in the year 1842.
PETER WILSON, farmer, Brantford P. O., is a son of Obed Wilson, who was
born in the State of Now Jersey in 1776, and died in Canada in 1847. He grew up
in his native State, where he married Hannah Yicebinder, of the same State, bom in
1781. In the year 1800 they, with one child, removed to Canada, and finally made
612 HISTORY OF BRAKT COUNTY.
their home in the Jeney Settlement in the County of Wentworth. He was throogh
life a fanner, and made a home from the dense wildemoss. Of his ten ehUdren, Peter
is the youngest, and was bom in the County of Wentworth in 1819, where he remained
until 1849, when he came to the County of Brant, and now owns 210 acres of good
land, well improved. He has been through life a farmer, and his present possessioaB
are the result of his own legitimate efforts. He was first married in 1840 to Sliz&beth
Mulholland, who was bom near Beverly, and died in Brant County in 1851. Her
children were Harriet, George (deoeiwed). Ruth and Lncinda A. Mr. Wilson's
second wife was Rachel Pepper, who is a native of Wentworth County, and is now the
mother of five children — Edward, James F., Ida L, Minnie and Wellington.
FREDERICK WOODS, fanner, Brantford P.O., was bora in Somersetshire, £i^-
land, and is a son of George A. and a grandson of Thomas Woods, who was bom in
Ireland in 1738. He was Captain in the British army for 27 years, taking an active
part in the destruction of the Spanish floating batteries at the Havana^ in 1781, and
the siege of Quebec. He died in 1823, leaving three children, George A. being the
second. He was born on the Isle of Man in 1792. He held the position of Lieat-
Colonel of Marines, and married Annie M., daughter of Rev. William Coney, of
English ancestry ; they became the parents of eight children ; Mrs. Woods died in
1838. Mr. Woods' second wife was Charlotte Heptenstall, by whom he had four chil-
dren. Of this family nine children are still living, Frederick S. being the fourth. He
enjoyed the privilege of a good education, and in 1841 came to Canada, settling near
Dundee. In 1856 he came to this county, where he now owns 60 acres on the Grand
River. He married Jane, second daughter of Capt h. Bailey. She died in this county,
leaving four sons — Francis B., Alfred C, Thomas and Albert. Mr. Woods' second wife
is Margaret Smith, of this county.
WILLIAM WOOD, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was the son of Robert and Jennette
(Dean) Wood. Mr. Wood was a land steward by occupation. His family consisted
of ten children, viz. : Andrew, who emigrated to Canada, settled in Hamilton, after-
wards in the County of Brant, where he bought 110 acres of land ; Annie, David,
Hannah, Mary (all died in Scotland) ; Jennette, Robert, Catherine (still Uving in
Scotland); and William, who married in Scotland, Mary Gill, daughter of James Gill,
a Scottish shepherd. Mr. Wood came to Canada in 1852. Mrs. Wood died Feb. 7,
1868, leaving six children living, viz. : Jennette, who married Geo. VanSickle ; Han-
nah, married Harvey H. VanSickle, proprietor of the Star Washing-Powder Manu-
factory; Maiy, who married William Thompson (deceased); Robert, married Eliza
Thompson ; Edmund, Elizabeth, and William, who married Selene Simpson. Wil-
liam and Robert now have chaige of the farm, and look after the interests of their
aged father, who lives with them. They are all members of the Baptist Chnrch.
JOSI AH WOODLEY, merehant, Newport, a native of this county, was bom March
27, 1841, and is a son of George and Abi^dl (Brown), and grandson of Matthias and
Margaret (Malcolm), maternal descendant of Joaiah and Elizabeth Brown. He mar-
ried, September 29, 1 879, Mary Diamond, daughter of John and Mary (Houlding)
Diamond, who was bom Mareh 13, 1845. They have one chUd — ^Edna, bom May
22, 1842. Mr. Woodley has received an excellent practical and busineos education,
the former at the common school, and the latter at a Buffalo, N.Y., commercial col-
lege. He has taught school in the county for a period of six years, holding a first-
class county certificate. Not finding sufficient scope for his ambition in the teachw's
pi^fession, he abandoned it for mercantile pursuits, which was his natural inclination,
and opened a general store at Newport thirteen years ago. He is now Postmaster of
the village, and enjoying a flourishing businesa He also owns a fine farm of fifty
acres in the third range east of Mount Pleasant, and a number of village lots; By
birth and education he is a Baptist, and in politics a Reformer.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 613
WTLE & TERRIS, pioprietora of the Eagle Park Garden, Brantford P.O. Tbia
enterprise was established in March, 1876, in a field fall of stumps, which is now a fine
garden of 18 acres, the largest of the kind in the county. The firm raise all kinds of
yegetables, flowers and fruits. Their garden has three large hot-houses. They are both
experienced men in the business, and natives of Scotland. Mr. Wyle was raised to his
present business. Since 1873 he has been a resident of Canada. The next two years
he was engaged at Pow Park. In 1875 he returned to Scotland, and in 1876 engaged
in his present business. His wife was Christina Erskine, of Scotland. Four of their
children are living.
JAMES TOUNG, fanner, Mohawk P.O., Brantford Township, is a son of David
and grandson of Andrew Young, a native of Perthshire, Scotland, where he died.
David Young, his son, was bom April 5th, 1812, and emigrated to Canada during the
spiing of 1837, locating in Brant County. Kine years after his coming to this country
he married. May 14th, 1846, Catharine Farrell, daughter of Patrick and granddaughter
of Donald Farrell, natives of Ireland, where both died, the former in 1835. They have
a family of four, viz.: James, bom November 14th, 1847 ; Mary Margaret, bom Dec.
14th, 1849; David William, bom Nov. 14th, 1851 ; Sarah Elspeth, bom Jan. 27th,
1856. James Young, of whom we write, owns jointly with his brother an excellent
farm of 225 acres, well stocked and highly cultivated, south from Brantford about five
miles. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
BURFORD TOWNSHIP.
JOHN BALLAED was bom near Kingwood, in Hampshire, England, 1804. His
mother's maiden name was Hayter. He was educated at Christ Church School, of
which his brother wa<« master. He came to Canada in 1825, and was for several years
assistant in the Post Office in the Town of York, now Toronto. Here he mairied in
1834 Prudence McLean, daughter of Captain McLean, of the Nashwaak, New Bruns-
wick* He settled near Stony Creek, in the Township of Saltfleet, where were bom to
him three children — John McLean Ballard, Hector of St. Anne's Church, Toronto ;
Prudence Anne, and Henry Allan, who is now living in Burford on the homestead, his
father having removed to that township in 1843. Subsequently, for a short time, for
the education of his children, after his wife's death in 1853, he resided in Toronto. He
died in Burford in 1873, at the age of 69 years. He was a life member of the Upper
Canada Bible Society, and took great interest in Sunday school work, having for
many years, and up to a very few weeks of his death, walked several miles each Sunday
to superintend a school in a neglected part of the township in which he lived. No less
than four farms acknowledged the power of his arm and the strength of his will, for
before his marriage he had already partially cleared up two in distant parts of the Pro>
vince— one on Kempepfeldt Bay, County of Simcoe, and another on Lake Erie, in
Malahide Township. But, as it was with too many of the pioneers of Canada, he over-
tasked his strength ; for in 1844 he had an attack of apoplexy, after which he never
recovered lus former vigour, although he lived for many years in the enjoyment of com-
parative health.
JOHN G. BECHTEL, miller, Burford P. 0., was bom in Waterloo, Ont, April 1,
1846. His father, Jolin Bechtel, was a native of Pennsylvania State, and his mother,
Elizabeth Bechtel, was bom and brought up in Canada. John G. Bechtel was mar-
ried in 1871 to Ellen Whittaker, daughter of John and Elizabeth Whittaker,. who
614 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
were from Lincolnshire, England. The fniits of this union have been five children
— Arthur B.y Lestella K, Emma H., Charles L. and Lillian M. Mr. Bechtel at
present owns the lar^st flour mill in Burford. The mill was erected in 1847, and has
A capacity of 75 barrels per day. Having made milling his vocation, he has met with
«very success.
WILLIAM BONNEY, farmer, Burford P. O., was born in June, 1818. He was a
«on of John Bonney, a native of England, who died in that country, April 1 7, 1840.
William came to Canada in 1841, and settled in this county. He married Jnly 17,
1841, Philip])a, daughter of Thomas Rush, a native of En^^land. His second wife was
Mary Ann Millman, by whom he had five children, viz.: Mary M„ born April 15, 1848;
John, deceased ; Eliza, deceased : Wellington A., born Oct. 25, 1855; and William H.,
bom May 5, 1858. Mr. Bonney and family are members of the Methodist Church.
He has been Councillor for a period of ten years, in which time he was Deputy Reeve
for four years. He is a Conservative in politics.
HENRY COX, merchant, Postmaster, Clerk of the Division Court, and Justice
of Peace, Burford, P. O., was bom in London, England, in the year 1835, and is the
second son of William James and Mary Ann (Docking) Cox, the latter of Norfolk,
Eng., and the former of London, Eng. The early life of our subject was passed in Lon-
don, England, where he received his education. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed
to the grocery business, which he followed in London until 1857, when he came to
this country, and for five and a half years he managed the business of Charles Watts,
of Brantford ; after which he came to Burford and engaged in the mercantOe busi-
nesB. ' This was in 1862, when business was very dull in the town. Through his
energy, enterprise, and correct business habits, he has built up a large taude, and has
proapered in all his undertakings. Mr. Cox has been Agent for the Montreal Telegraph
<)ompany eight years. School Trustee for twelve consecutive years, taking great in-
terest in educational matters, and was appointed Postmaster in 1875; Division Court
Olerk, May 16th, 1871 ; Commissioner of Queen's Bench in 1866, and Magistrate in
1879 ; and he takes an active interest in all of these offices. He and his wife are
members of the Congregational Church, to which they have belonged since residing in
Burford, and they are zealous church workers. Mr. Cox has held the position of
Superintendent of Sabbath Schools for a number of years. He was married in 1861
to Miss Annie Maria McKitrick, of Brantford, by whom he has had two children —
Henry Gordon and Grace Elizabeth, both living. Mr. Cox has been a. very sucoesafnl
man.
GEORGE DANIELS, farmer, Burford P.O., was bom in Burford, August 13,
1828, and is a son of Laurence and Lucinda Daniels, and a grandson of Henry
Daniels, a native of Nova Scotia. His father, Laurence Daniels, was bom in Nova
4Scotia, in 1800, and came to Burford Township in 1813, at which time this county
was a wilderness. He held the office of Magistrate for several years. George
Daniels was married in 1849 to Harriet C. Lampman. They are the parents of
three children, namely, Lucinda, bom August 27, 1851 ; Charles L., bom May 22,
1854, and Acasta Annett, bom October 16, 1860. Mr. Daniels has been Assessor and
Oollector for about six years, each a part of the time, and is a member of the Congre-
^tional Church.
WILLLAM DANIELS, gentleman, Burford P.O., was bom in New Brunswick,
September 10, 1814; he is the son of Henry and Esther Daniels, who were natives of
New Bmnswick. He married October 23, 1849, Ann Pool, daughter of Thomas and
Ann Pool, who came to Canada in 1830 from England. Mr. Daniels settled in Bur-
ford in 1868, where he has since occupied his time, meeting with every success.
EZRA K DISHER, ftumer, Burford P.O., was bom October 25, 1840, in Lincoln
Ck>anty, Ontario. His father, Henry Disher, was bom January 27, 1815, and mar-
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 615
ried Margaret Flattiaon, who was bom February 10, 1820. Ezra Disher married
September 24, 1862, Mary £. Henderson, daughter of John and Mary Henderson,
natives of Canada. She was bom February 22, 1844. Mr. Disher settled in Bur-
-ford in May, 1873. They are members of tlys M. £. Church, and are the parents of
nx children.
NELSON ELLIOTT, farmer, Fairfield Plains P. O., was bom at Burford in
1857. He was a son of Orlin EUiott, and a grandson, on his mother's side, of
Beabea Dutcher. His father was bom in 1813, and married Elizabeth Dutcher, of this
county. They have seven children, viz., Cecilia, Wellington, Cornelia, Orlin, Nelson,
Alphens and Oliver. Of this family Nelson was the fifth, and married Ethelda L.
Howell, October 3, 1882. Mrs. Elliott's grandfather's name was Enoch Howell, and
he lives in Burford Township ; her father lives at Aylmer. Mr. Elliott has a fine
farm of 140 acres, pleasantly situated in Fairfield Plains. They belong to the Method-
ist Church.
GEORGE ELYIDGE, farmer, Burford P.O., son of Charles and Hannah Elvidge,
was born in England, August 28. 1818, and came to Quebec in 1845. He married
November 2, 1847, Lucy Cummings, daughter of Shedrack and Olivia Cummings, of
J£nglish descent, who was bom April 2, 1824. They settled in Burford Township in
1857, and are the parents of ten chilcTren, viz : James, bom March 10, 1850, died
January 20, 1881 ; Charles, bom November 25, 1848 ; Henry, bom January 20, 1852 ;
Anna, bom September 13, 1853; Mary, born July 31, 1855 ; George, bom March 20,
1857 ; Thomas, bom January 19, 1859 ; Lucy, bom December 3, 1861 ; William, bom
J^anuary 16, 1863 ; and Joseph, bom Febiuaiy 15, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Elvidge are
members of the Canada Methodist Church. Mr. Elvidge has held the office of Trastee,
.and has met with every success as a farmer.
JAMES FARRINGTUN, farmer, Cathcart P.O., was a son of Adam and Maiy Ann
'(Trimble) Farrington. Adam Fanington was from Scotland, and one of the earliest
.aeitlecs of this county, having helped to cut the first trees in his township. He was
killed in 1858, having been thrown from a waggon loaded with brick, and run over.
The brick was for the house now occupied by our subject, and one of the first brick
Jioaaes in that township. James Farrington was married, October 6, 1879, to Miss
Mary E Lang. They are the parents of two children, viz., Joseph W., bom July 12,
1880 ; and Mary A., bom Dec. 23, 1881. Mr. Farrington has been to California three
times. He is a member of the English Church, and a Conservative in politica His
-fium consists of 310 acres of improved land, well located.
RUSSELO. GAGE, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bom July 14, 1819, in Wentworth
Oounty. He was a son of William and grandson of William Gage. The latter settled
4Lt Stony Creek, and as an incident of the mode of transportation of his time, we give
the following: Mr. Gage used to carry on his back two busliels of wheat from his place
to Fort Niagara, a distance of about 45 miles, for the mill. Previous to this time,
they burned a hole in a large stump, and used to pound their grain to flour. He
emigrated from Lreland to America previous to the Bievolution, and in 1776 came to
Oaiuida. Of his family of six children, William was the second, and settled in Went-
worth County. His family consiBted of ten children, Russel being the youngest He
43aiiie to this county in 1846, settling on his present farm. He married June 6, 1845,
Susan, daughter of Frederick Snider, a native of Pennsylvania. They have two
daughters, viz., Margaret C, bom Sept 27, 1851 (married William Frederick Miles) ;
4aid Alice S., bom Jan. 2, 1857. The family have been life members of the English
iThurch. Mr. Gage owns one of the finest faims in Burford. It consists of 200 acres,
iMaotifully situated, and under the highest state of cultivation.
PETER HATHAWAY, mill-owner, Burford P.O., was bom in Dundas in 1827,
4md obtained a practical education in the schools of that village. Having natural
616 HISTORY OF BtLXST COUNTY.
talents for mechanics, he early tamed his attention to milling, and his genius in this
direction enabled him to comttmct anything his fertile mind conceived. He haDt a
large steam mill five miles west of Dondas, which he operated for a number of years.
He afterwards worked in NorwichviUe, then came to his present place of bQsines&
Mr. Hathaway belongs to the Methodist* Church, and is the faiher of four children —
Daniel, Samuel, John and Cynthia. Hathaway's mill, in Burfprd Township, north of
the Village of Buiford, was built in 1870. It is a strong and substantial building, 30
by 40 feet, three nin of buhrs, an excellent water-power, and has a capacity of about
75 barrels per day. Mr. Hathaway does custom work only.
ARCHIBALD HARLEY, M.P. The gentleman whose namej heads this sketch
was bom at Newcastle, K.B., October 10, 1824. He is a son of William Harley,
who was bom in Ireland, and while a young man emigrated to Canada, where he
married Miss McCIean, a native of Scotland. Our subject left New Brunswick while
a youth, and with his parents came to Toronto, from whence he afterwards moved to
Hamilton, where he attended school for some time. After leaving school he went to
the State of Pennsylvania, but after a residence of two or three years in that State,
returned to Canada and engaged in the lumber and milling business in the County of
Wentworth, in company with his brother-in-law, Wilson. In 1867 he moved to
Buiford Township, where he is now engaged in farming, and where he has since re-
sided. He married Elizabeth Stewart, a native of Saltfleet, and a daughter of James
Stewart, a native of Ireland. By this marriage ten children were bom, viz., William^
James, John (deceased), Luther, Sarah (deceased), Arthur (deceased), Edmund, Edgar
(deceased), Anuie (deceased), and Archibald. Mr. Harley has seen much of public
life, and has frequently been called by his friends to represent them in some official
capacity. He was Keeve of Burford five years, Deputy Reeve one year, and Warden
of the county one year. In June, 1882, he was elected to the House of Commons for
South Oxford, and in addition to this responsible position, is now serving as Treasurer
of Burford Township. He is a Reformer in politics, and a strict partizan, being one
of the leaders of his party in the county. He is also a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
BENJAMIN HA UN, farmer, Burfoid P.O., was bom in Wellington County, OnL,
in 1844, and is the son of Matthias and EUiza Haun, who were both natives of Canada.
They removed to this county and township in 1866, and purchased 100 acres of lanply
where Mr. Benjamin Haun now lives, and 25 acres of woodland near by. Mr. 'M'l^Ub'^ft
Haun lived here until his death, which occurred in March, 1880, aged 67 yeara He
belonged to the Church of England, and was the &ther of three children — Julia, Ben-
jamin and EHizabeth. Our subject was brought up on the £Eurm, and received a common
school education. He came here with his parents, and has since resided on the farm
his parents bought in 1866. He is a member of the English Church, and is a Con-
servative in politics. Mr. Haun was a member of Captain^arshall's Gavaiiy troop
when it was gazetted in 1866. He has been successful in life, and is respected by all
who know him.
JAMES 6. HEARNE, farmer, Burford P.O. James H Heame, the father of oar
subject, was bom in England, where he was also married. He emigrated to this
country, with his wife and four children, in 1829, and settled on Talbot Street, West
of Simcoe, where he followed the trade of carpenter. After the county became more
settled he turned his attention to cabinet-making, which he followed, in oonnectiim
with undertaking, during the remainder of his Hfe. He located on land in Dutch
Settlement in this township in 1832, and here he lived for three or four yearai He
died in 1881, aged 88 years. He and his wife were members of the Metho«yst Chnrch^
and were much interested in religious matten. He was generally suooessfol in all of
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 6J7
his undeiiakings. He had six children — James G., Sophia, Ann, William, George and
Martha. George was bom on Talbot Street, and Martha on Burford Street. James
G. Heame, the subject of our sketch, was bom in England in 1821, and since coming
to Canada has made farming his occupation. He bought where he now resides in
1849, and purchased 25 acres of land in the bush, which he has cleared and improved,
and now has 115 acres of excellent land in a good state of cultivation. He was
married to Sarah Blackstock Brown, by whom he has had four children — tJames
A., Greorge M., William T. and Gracie Elizabeth. He has been very successful in
life ; having begun with no capital, he has acquired a very nice property. His sister
Ann was killed, with her husband, John Russell, of Brantford, a builder and railroad
contractor, at the bridge accident near Hamilton, Out., when the Desjardins Canal
Bridge gave way. They left five children — John, Ann, Maria, James and Myrian. Mr.
Heame's father was the first person to buy a city lot in Burford or vicinity. In
politics they are all Conservatives.
PAUL HUFFMAN, farmer and lumber manufacturer, Northfield Centre, was bom
in Wentworth County, January 25, 1833. His grandfather, Paul Huffman, son of
Henry Huffman, was of German descent, but was born on the sea when his parents
were coming to America in 1766. He came to Canada in 1811, and settled in Went-
worth County, and had a family of eleven children, the father of our subject, Paul,
being the sixth. He was bom in the State of New Jersey, in 1802, and married in
1828, Catherine, daughter of David Kern. She was bom in 1804, and became the
mother of seven children, viz., Catherine, David, Paul (our subject), William, Matthias,
Samuel and Charles. Paul married, February 28, 1856, Hannah File, who was bom
January 26, 1834 ; she was a daughter of John and £lizabeth (Hazle) File. They
became the parents of eleven children, viz.: John P., bom Nov. 25, 1856; Matthew
Y., bom June 19, 1858; Geoige, born July 14, 1860; Amy and Annie (twins), the
latter of whom is dead, bom April 17, 1862; Albert £., bom April 21, 1864 ; Eussell,
bom April 2, 1866 ; Francis aI, bom Aug. 20, 1868 ; Mary A. (deceased), born July
18, 1870; Catherine E., bom Feb. 6,1874, and Charles W., June 6, 1878. Mr.
Huffman is engaged in the manufacture of lumber, shingles and cheese boxes, making
of the last named about 22,000 in 1882. He has been connected with municipal
matters part of the time for the past twelve years, and has held the position of Deputy
Reeve for four terms. He and his ancestors have been adherents of the English
Church. He was the nominee of the Conservative party in the interests of South
Brant. Mr. Huffman is a Freemason of 15 yeais standing.
T. LLOYD-JONES, famier, Burford P. O., was bom in Brantford Township in
1840, and is a son of William Lloyd^Jones and Catherine Lloyd-Jones. His father
was bom in North Wales, educated at Rugby, and was a barrister, and his mother in
England. They emigrated to Canada in 1836, and settled in Brantford Township, where
he purchased 120 acres of land, that on which his son Robert now lives. Here he made
a comfortable home for himself and family. His death occurred in 1845, at the age of
45 years. Mrs. Uoyd-Jones died in 1875, in the 74th year of her age. They were the
parents of six children, viz., John, Robert, Mary, Thomas, Ellen and Beata. Mr. T.
Lloyd-Jones lived at home until 15 years of age, when he entered a mercantile house
in Brantford, where he remained for five years, serving his time at that business. His
health £dling, he visited friends in England, and was gone two years. He then
returned to his native country and engaged in farming. At present he owns 170 acres
of land, which is in a high state of cultivation, and which he is always improving. He
was a member of the County Council for two years, and is now Reeve of the Township
of Burford ; Secietary and Treasurer of the Township Agricultural Society for ten years^
nd one of the Board of Directors of tJi e County Mutual Lisurance Company. Mr.
37
9
^18 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Lloyd -Jones also takes great interest in military matters, being 1st Lieutenant in a
troop of the 2nd Cavalry. He was married in 1868 to Miss Isabella, only daughter
-of Fred. G. and Isabella Millar, a pioneer family in the Dominion, by whom he has
'had four children — John B., Lillie C, Mary and Thomas.
MKS. MELISSA KANE, Burford, widow of the late Thomas Kane, was bom in
^ew Brunswick, May 25, 1838. Her father, David Prosser, was a native of New
Brunswick, and came to Burford in 1837. Mr. Kane was son of Thomas and Alice
Kane, natives of Ireland. They were wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland on their
voyage to Canada in 1835. Mr. Kane was proprietor of a saw-mill in Burford, but
unfortunately was burned out twice. He died July 13, 1882, leaving a family of thir-
teen children, two of whom are married ; the eldest, Enmia, is married to Wilfred J.
Maus, and the second, Nellie, is married to James Lapierre vJampbell, the remaining
being Jcsiah P., Greorge Y., Stella. Wilfred J., Melissa, David P., Mabel, Maud,
Thomas A., Daniel D. and Charles B. D.
JOHN LATTIMER, farmer, Burford P. O., was bom in Galloway, Scotland, in the
year 1825, and is the son of James Lattimer, whose sketch appears in this work. Our
subject was reai'ed on the farm where he now lives, being 15 years old when his parente
settled there. He remained with his father and mother until their death. Mr. Lat-
timer has been twice married — first to Jane Frills, widow of Reuben Armstrong, who
bore to him two children (twins), Sarah and Elizabeth. He married for his second
wife, Susanna Brown, by whom he has had two children, James and Mary. Mr.
and Mrs. Lattimer are members of the Presbyterian Church, to which they have
belonged for a number oi years. He owns 107 acres of land, which is in a good state
of cultivation. He has done very well in life.
AUGUSTUS MALCOLM, Scotland P.O., was bom April 9th, 1820. He was a
«on of Peter Malcolm, who was bom in Canada in 1793. He was Captain of the
Militia, and married Elizabeth Slaught They became the parents of eight children,
^iz., Augustus, Myra, Belinda, Hugh, Mary, Henry, Ezra and Abigail. Augustus,
the eldest, married Sarah Bethina, daughter of Jabez Bugbee, who was bom in Yer-
inont in 1798, and died in this country in 1873. Their marriage took place September
23rd, 1842. The children by this union were Lyman, Elizabeth, William Henvy,
JFrancis H., Lucina and Alonzo McK. Mr. Malcolm owns 84 acres of valuable land
in the Village of Scotland. They are members of the Congregational Church, and
were brought up to farm life. They settled on their farm in 1825, and have continued
there ever since.
EUGENE MESSECAR, farmer, Scotland, P.O., was bom Febroary 7tb, 1857. He
was a son of Silas and grandson of Matthew Messecar. The latter came from the State
of New Jersey, and settled near Scotland. His mother bought 200 acres of land from
old grandfather Malcolm, which was granted to him by the €k)vemment. Matthew
•settled upon it, and it was there that Silas was bom, in June, 1819. He was one of a
family of ten childrel^ His father, Matthew, came to Canada between the War of
the Revolution and the War of 1812, taking part in the latter at the age of sixteen
years. Mrs. Messecar, the mother of our subject, was bom September 3rd, 1821 ; she
was the daughter of John Shaver, and was mamed, October 10th, 1840, to Mr. Mes-
secar. They were the parents of nine children, viz.: Sarah (deceased), Mary A.,
Seymour, Lyman, Ellen, Albert, Eamest, Eugene and Edward ; they are all in the
States except Eugene, Mary and Edward. Mrs. Messecar is a Baptist.
GILBERT MERRITT, farmer, Sootknd P.O., was born January 9, 1838. He is
a son of Caleb Merritt, who was bom in New Branswick in 1798. He married Hannah
Underhill, who was bom in the United States. They came to Canada in 1837, just
prior to the Revolution, and settled in Braut County, where they bought the farm
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 619
now occupied by Gilbert, his son. Here Mr. Merritt died September 15, 1874. Gil-
bert Merritt married, February 2lBt, 1866, Harriett Smith, born September 21st,
1846, daughter of Benjamin Smith and granddaughter of David Smith. Her
mother's maiden name was Martha Cornell. Mr. Merritt's family consists of three
children, viz. : Mary J., bom September 29, 1867 ; Martha Ellen^ died in infancy; and
^arah A., bom January 3, 1871; all members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Merritt
owns 62^ acres of land, pleasantly situated on the town line between Burford and
Oakland.
ROBERT H. MILES, farmer, Fairfield Plains P.O., was bom August 7, 1844.
His father, William Miles, was born in Ireland, and came to Canada with his father,
^ohn Miles. He was one of a family of eight, and married Eleanor Devinney, wbo
came from Ireland when a child, with her parents. They had a family of eleven cliil-
<iren, viz. : Sarah A. (deceased) ; Robert H., married Harriett Underbill ; Charlotte
M., George F., Eliza L., Albert L., Ella A., Edmond A., William F., Emma T., and
Olaia S. Mr. William Miles died July, 1882. Mr. Robert Miles owns 100 acres of
good land, and is surrounded by a bright family and all the comforts of a pleasant
home. He is a Baptist in belief.
WILLIAM F. MILES, farmer. Mount Vernon P.O., was born July 2, 1848, in
Brant County, and is a son of William Miles, whose biography appears in connection
with that of his son, Robert H. Miles. William Frederick Miles was the fourth
«on of a family of eleven children. He waa married, January 1st, 1874, to Margaret
O , daughter of Russel 0. Gage, whose history appears elsewhere ; she was bom Sept.
27, 1851. They were the parents of two children — Alice Alberta, bom April 15,
1875 ; and Clarence R, bom July 29, 1877, died May 19, 1882. They are mem-
bers of the English Church. Wm. F. Miles ia Secretary of the Burford Masonic
Lodge, Na 106 ; also Vice-President of the Burford Agricultural Society, and a mem-
ber of the A.O.U.W.
ROBERT C. MUIR, farmer and Justice of the Peace, was bom in Renfrew, Scot-
land, in the year 1812, and is a son of John U. and Diana (Winncft) Muir, natives of
Scotland, where they were born aud married. In 1821 they emigrated to Canada, and
settled in Lanark County, where he purchased land and resided until 1834, vhen he
sold his property and came to Brant County (then Oxford), in the London District.
He purchased 200 acres of wild land on the north side of the present county and in
<;hi8 township, where he made a permanent home. He cleared his farm and improved
it as fast as possible, and being prosperous in his business affairs, accumulated a good
property. This was the second farm he and his sons cleared in Canada. He always
took a deep interest in politics, and was a great Reformer himself. Mr. Muir was a
cnember of the Congregational Church, and Mrs. Muir was a Baptist. Both were
much interested in religious matters. They were the parents of seven children, who
were all bom in Scotland, and who all came to Canada. Their names were Thomas
^(deceased), Margaret, John, James (deceased), Janet, Robert C, and Allan. Mr. Muir
died in 1854, at the age of eighty-two years. Mrs. Muu* died the same year, six weeks
previous to his death. R. C. Muir, our subject, was about eight years old when his
parents came to Canada, and he has a most vivid recollection of pioneer days. He is a
^f-read man, having received a limited education in the primitive schools of a new
country, often going four miles to school, and frequently encountering wild animals on
the way. When old enough, he began assisting his father in the labours of the farm.
fie was married, in 1852, to Margaret E. lliwaites, daughter of John Thwaites, Adjutant
of the Ayrshire Militia, Scotland. After his marriage he located in the eastern part
of the township for some yearo ; then selling that property, he bought 325 acres of the
best land in the county, adjoining the Village of Burford, where he now lives. During
620 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
middle life he was a contractor, building a section of several miles of the Great Westerly
BAilway'of Canada, and :he Hamilton and London plank road, besides many minor
contracts. He was elected Councillor in 1850, being one of the first to have that
honour. He filled the office three years, and was appointed Justice of Peace in 1852, a
position he has filled ever since, and he is the oldest Justice in the county. He served
as Captain of Militia for two years, and was Lieutenant previous to that for three
years. Mr. Muir has a great desire for travel, and has visited many different countried-
on the globe. In 1869, returning from New Zealand to Liverpool, the Blue Jacket^
the ship in which he took passage, took fire, and was burned 700 miles from Cape
Horn. The crew and passengers took to the boats, three in number; the one in which
the passengers were was picked up, aft^r seven days, by the Piermont, a Dutch barque ;,
three of the men had died from exposure. Another boat was picked up after fifteen
days, half of the crew having died ; the other boat was never heard of. He and
his wife are members of the Baptist Church, to which they have belonged for many
years, and have always been most zealous in any Christian work. Five sons have been
born to them, viz., John T., Robert C, William K., Matthew F. and Allan D. John
is in the Immigration Department, Toronto, an appointment by the Ontario Govern-
ment ; Robert is a grain-buyer in Burford, and has William assisting him ; Matthew
is attending University College, Toronto ; Allan is at home on the farm with hifr
father. Mr. Muir has always enjoyed the best health, and is now almost as strong a&
ever.
JOHN G. PETIIT, farmer, Scotland P.O., is a son of Charles and a grandson of
John C. Pettit, who was born in 1762, and died in 1833. He married Martha.
Biggars, who was born in 1762, and died in 1821. Their family consisted of ten
children. Charles, father of John, being the fourth. He was bom in 1795 in the
Township of Saltfleet, and married, in 1817, Anna Bedell, of Staten Island. Thej
had seven children, viz., Susannah, Martha, Joseph, John G., Stephen, Rachel and
Mary. John G. married, Oct. Ist, 1861, Lucinda Winegarden ; their feimily consista
of one daughter named Myra, who was bom March 2nd, 1863. Charles, the father of
our subject, served in the War of 1812, taking an active part in the battle of Queens-
ton Heights, at which time Gen. Brock was kUled. Mr. Pettit and family attend the
Congregational Church ; he has served a term of 'two years in the Towns^p Council.
His farm consists of 195 acres well improved, and Mr. Pettit is doing a good forming
business.
ARTHUR POLLARD, farmer, Burford P.O., was bom April 1st, 1845, in Dur-
ham County ; he is a son of Zachariah and Mary Pollard, natives of England, who
settled in Durham County in 1831. Arthur Pollard married in 1870, EmiUne £.
Brand, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Brand. They are parents of three children,
viz. : Ellen M., bom Sept 26th, 1873 ; Bertha, bom Oct 4th. 1875 ; and Henry C,
bom May 13th, 1878.
JOSEPH POTTER, farmer, Cathcart P.O., was bom in Ireland in 1823. He is a
son of John and Jane Potter, natives of Ireland, who came from a little town in Tyrone
County named Caledon, from which Caledon in Canada is caUed. They had eight
children, Joseph being the fourth. He came to Canada in 1843, and settled where he
now lives in Burford Township. He owns 133 acres of improved land, and is now a.
robust bachelor of fifty years. The road upon which he is located was put through in
1842 ; it was at first a plank road, but now is a stone road. The first school organ-
ized in that section was in 1848, and taught by Mr. Books. Mr. Potter is of the
Presbyterian faith, and a Conservative in politics.
DANIEL SMITH, farmer, Northfield Centre P.O. John Smith, the patema)
grandfather of our subject, was a son of Joseph Smith, and was bom August 22, 1754.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 621
He came to Canada f.om the State of New Jersey in 1784, with his wife, Elsie Wilcox,
•and three children and one horse, the mother riding the horse and holding one child
in her arms, while his other children occupied baskets hung on either side of the horse.
He had a family of eight children, viz., Joseph, Benjamin, Absalom, Daniel, Levi,
Hannah, John and Ezekiel. Daniel married Annie M., daughter of John and Annie
M. (Young) Beamer, who was bom November 17, 1756, and died December 24, 1851.
Daniel had seven children, viz., Dennis L., born July 7, 1815, married Martha J.
Darragh, February 14, 1844, and died October 2, 1881 ; Mary was bom March 2, 1817 ;
Isaac B. was born July 16, 1820, married Maria Kpnkle October 22, 1843; William,
born March 13, 1822, married Sarah Kennedy December 30, 1846; George, bom
February 8, 1824, married October 24, 1849; John K., born January 2, 1826, died
September 22, 1827 ; Daniel, born August 27, 1828, married, May 31, 1853, Elizabeth,
daughter of Jesse and Mary He wry, of Wei land County. Jesse was bom August 9,
1799 ; his wife was bom April 10, 1804 ; they had six children — George, Nancy,
Elizabeth (bom May 31, 1829), Harman, Lydia and Calvin. Daniel and Elizabeth
Smith had three sons, viz., Marcus K., born April 3, 1854, married Sarah J., daughter
of John Kennedy, and now resides in the County of Norfolk ; Augustus F., born
November 0* 1855 ; and Adrian W., born February 23, 1862. Mary Elizabeth
Olassner, the maternal great-grandmother of our subject, was bom at Baden, Germany,
March 19, 1730, and in the last decade of the 18th century emigrated to America.
She was married April 9, 1755, to John Beamer, of Heidelberg, Germany. Their son
-John — bom November 27, 1759, at Greenwich, Now Jersey — married, April 7, 1782,
Anna Young, daughter of John W. Young, of Sussex County, N.J. They had come
to Canada in 1790, stopped a short time at Niagara, and settled at Grimsby in 1791.
DANIEL SMITH, the subject of this sketch, and the youngest son of Daniel and
A. M. Smith, was bom in the Township of Clinton, County of Lincoln, Province of
Ontario, on the mountain south and east of the Village of Beamsville, brought up on
the farm on which his parents settled soon atfter their marriage, and where they lived
'Until their death. His father was a member and Deacon of the fLrst church erected in
that vicinity, known as the old Clinton Church on the mountain, holding that position
•during the remaining part of his life, and was also appointed to the office of what was
then called a Commissioner. Daniel Smith, the subject of this sketch, received the
most of his education at the common school in the section where he lived, and at a
•select school taught by the Rev. R. H. Close, who had been president of a college in
TJtica, N.Y. — this school was supported by private individuals, who at much extra
cost kept it up for some time — at the close of which he started as teacher, following that
occupation for about five years, after which he married and settled in the Township of
Burford and County of Brant, on the 9th of November, 1854, on a lot of woodland —
*the deed of which he had secured from Government, holding the seal and. signature of
Lord Elgin, and which at the present time is the only deed ever made for said property
— following the course of his father and grandfathers, for both his father^s father and
mother's father lived and died on the property they first settled upon. Having always
devoted his. best interest to education and other improvements, was a member of the
•committee that started the first Sabbath school and library in the section, which was
then held in the school house. He was appointed Justice of the Peace, along with
several others, in the year 1873. In May, A.D. 1875, he succeeded, by the help of the
Hon. Wm. Paterson, M.P. for the South Riding of Brant, in establishing a post office
in the vicinity by the name of Florence Vale (now called Northfield Centre), which has
proven to be a great boon to the inhabitants of the place.
JOHN SMITH, farmer, Fairfield Plains P.O., was born December 1, 1820. His
grandfather, John Smith, attained the age of 100 years, and came to Canada in 1787.
622 HISTOHY OF BRANT COUNTY.
His Either, William Smith, was born October 11, 1786, and married, in 1809, Charitjr
Smith, who was born July 18, 1791. They were the parents of ten children, viz.,
Phoebe, Russel, Lewis (deceased), Anna Elizabeth, John, Mary, Madilla, Allen and
Margaret. Mr. Smith died December 27, 185G, and his wife, April 7, 1866. John
Smith's grandmother, on his mother's side, was the daughter of Henry and Charity^
Huffman, and was bom September 30, 1762. John, our subject, was married Majr
24, 1849, to Mary J. Merritt. They are the parents of three children, namely, Wil-
liam M., bom April 15, 1850 ; Myrtilla, born September 12, 1851 ; and John C, bom
November 23, 1856. Mr. Smith has a farm of over 400 acres, 300 acres of which
are well cultivated. His family belong to the Baptist Church, and his political views,
are strictly Beform.
JOSEPH H. SMITH, farmer, Fairfield Plains P.O., is a son of Joseph and Mar-
garet (Hoover) Smith, and was born in Canada in June, 1850. On December 17,
1873, he married Cornelia Elliott, who was bom October 7, 1854, and by her has had
three children, viz., Edson K., bom October 2, 1874; Wilfred H., bom May 14,
1878; and Harry E., bom November 26, 1881. Mr. Smith owns a farm of 50 acrea
under high cultivation, and is industrious and prosperous in his farm operations.
H. LAFAYETTE SMITH, farmer, Fairfield Plains P.O., was bom in Wentworth
County, Sept. 11, 1848. His grandfather, Jacob Smith, was bom in New Jersey,
Sept. 28, 1789, and died in Wentworth County, April 12, 1860. Hiram, father
of our subject, was bom in Wentworth County in 1811. He married Charity^
daughter of Obcdiah Taylor, and had a family of four children, viz., Obediah T.,
Hannah C, Tena A. and H. Lafayette. Lafayette Smith married June 15, 1870,
Isabelle Johnston. They have three children, viz., Eddy B., bom July 13, 1871 ;:
011a E., bom June 2, 1873 ; and Clarence L., bom February 28, 1876. Mrs. Smith
was bom in Haldimand County, May 30, 1851. Mr. Smith settled in Brant County
in 1882. He owns 130 acres of land under a high state of cultivation. He also owna-
in the State of Delaware, near its capital, an undivided half of 80 acres, for which
he has been offered $4,500.
MARGARET E. SMITH, Fairfield Plains P.O., widow of Joseph Smith, is a
daughter of Harvey and Margaret (Fairchild) Hoover. Her grandfather was Peter
Hoover, of German descent, who came to Canada in 1776, and settled near Stamford.
Harvey, her husband, was in the War of 1812 during its whole continuance, includ-
ing the battles of Lundy's Lane, Chippewa and Stony Creek. The mother of our
subject, Margaret, daughter of Benjamin Fairchild, of English descent, acted as in-
terpreter to the Indians during the War of 1812. Mr. Fairchild lived at Niagara,
and was in the Government employ, as Commissioner of the Indian Department. Mr..
Joseph Smith was a son of Chauncy and Mary (Eddy) Smith. He died Jan. 16thy
1861, leaving ten children, viz. : Benjamin, Joseph, Thomas ; Maria, who married M.
Elliott ; Adelaide, who married Wm. Buchanan ; Mary, who married Charles Hand ;
Helen, who married Eli Eddy ; Kate, who married Joseph McMains ; EUiza and Emme-
line (deceased). Mrs. Smith is a member of the Methodist Church, and owns a
valuable farm of 100 acres, beautifully situated on the town line, between Oakland
and Burford.
RUSSEL SMITH, farmer, Burford Township, Fairfield Plain P.O., was bom in
Ancaster Township, June 4, 1812, aiyl came to Burford in April, 1833, where he ha»
since resided. His grandfather, John Smith, son of John and Sarah Smith, of Eng-
land, was born in London, England, November 13th, 1747. He married March 10th,
1772, Anna Hoy, daughter of Mary and Stephen Roy, who was bom April 13th, 1752.
They emigrated to the State of New Jersey, and the following children were bom :.
Benjamin, Stephen, John, Mary, Abraham, William, Isaac, James and Samuel. Ii>
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 623
1787 they came to Canada, settled near Grimsby, and finally settled in Ancaster^
Wentworth County. Mr. John Smith died August 4, 1846, and his wife died Sept.
8, 1830. William Smith, father of our subject, was born October 11, 1786, and
married February 21, 1809; Charity Smith, daughter of Lewis and Phoebe Smith,
who came fi-om New Jersey, and was bom July 18, 1791. She died April 7, 1866, and
William, her husband, died Dec. 7, 1856. They were the parents of ten chUdren, viz.,
Phcebe, Russel, Lewis (deceased), Ann, Elizabeth, John (whose history may be found in
this work), Mary, Madilla, Allen and Margaret. Russel Smith's grandmother, on his
mother's side, was the daughter of Henry and Charity Huffman, and was bom Sept. 30>
1762. Eussel Smith married, March 12, 1835, Elizabeth Taylor. From this marriage
was one child, William T. Smith, who was born June 5, 1837. Mrs. Smith died June
13, 1837. Russel Smith next married, M^y 1, 1838, Mars^aret B., daughter of Wm.
Kent. They have had seven children, viz., Elizabeth K., Hervy M. (deceased), Hester
A., Margaret E. (deceased), Charles D., Caroline A. and Herbert F. (deceas^). Mr.
Smith owns 200 acres of land at present ; his two sons about the same amount. He
has been for about 20 years engaged in producing a pure grape native wine, making
from 4,000 to 8,000 gallons per year. He has, during a long active life, been engaged
in various pursuits apart from farming. He now cultivates 7 acres of grape vineyard ;
besides, he buys annually many tons of grapes for his wine manufactory. He haa
been a member of the Methodist Church of Canada over fifty-three years, a Circuit
Steward forty-five years, and a Justice of the Peace in the County of Brant over thirty
years. He is a life-long Reformer.
WILLIAM T. SMITH, farmer, Fairfield Plains, is a son of Russel Smith, whoso
biography appears in this work. He was bom June 5, 1837, in the County of Brant,
and was married November 22, 1864, to Margaret M., daughter of Brian Carpenter, a
native of Pennsylvania ; she was born in Wentworth County. Their children number
four, viz., William R, Minnie E., Margaret £. and Herbert D. Mr. Smith owns a
farm of 87 acres, pleasantly situated on Fairfield Plains, having laid it out tastefully
with shrubbery, &c. He is a member of the Canada Methodist Church, and a Reformer
in politics.
DANIEL SOUTHWICK, fanner, Falkland P.O., was born October 3, 1836 ; son
of Daniel Southwick, who was bom June 7, 1793. He settled in Burford in 1818.
THOMAS STANDING, farmer, Burford P.O., was bom in the County of Peel.
Ont, January 19, 1830, and was the son of John Standing, who came to Canada in
the year 1827, and settled in the County of Peel. The latter was married in England
to Nancy, daughter of Robert Yarley. All were natives of England. They had eleven
children, of whom James, Elizabeth, Ann and Thomas (twins), Robert and Ellen are
living, and John, Agnes, Mary, Alice and Margaret are dead. Thomas, the subject of
this sketch, married, October 5, 1854, Janet Balmer, daughter of James and grand-
daughter of John Balmer, natives of Scotland. They had ten children, viz. : John H.,
bom December 29, 1855 ; James B., bom September 23, 1857 ; Thomas W., born Sep-
tember 12, 1859 ; Janet, bom August 2, 1861 ; George M., bom May 2, 1863 ; Robert
A., bom May 9, 1865, died December 17, 1874 ; William H., bom June 18, 1867 ;
David J., bora May 25, 1870 ; Edgar H., bora May 30, 1872 ; Margaret E., bora
Febraary 1, 1^875, died January 11, 1877. Mr. Standing is a prosperous farmer, own-
ing 150 acres of excellent land near Burford Village. He is a Methodist.
JAMES STEWART, farmer, Scotland P.O., was born Febraary 15, 1818. He was
a son of Allan Stewart, who was bora in Paisley, Scotland. He married Catherine
Thomson in 1807, and had five children, viz., Jane, Grace, Frances, George and James,
who married first, in 1842, Louise, daughter of Silas Metcalf, and had one son, SiUs.
She died Sept. 15, 1845 3 and Mr. Stewart married for a second wife Sarah Moore.
624 HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
They became the parents of five children, viz., Allan, born 1851, died 1653 ; Louifle,
born 1854 ; Charles, bom 1856 ; James, bom 1859, and Robert B., bom 1861. Allan
Thomson, a cousin of oar subject, came to Canada in the 71st Regiment, in 1847. Mr.
Stewart is a member of the Baptist Church.
DR. E. W. TEGART, Scotland P.O., was a son of Edward Tegart, who was bom in
Ireland in 1780. His grandfathei, John Tegart, was bom in England, and held the
position of Captain in the English army. Edward, the father, came to this country in
1820, and settled north of Toronto, in Tecumseh. Here he remained about 20 years,
when he removed to Goderich. At this time there was not a post office between
Toronto and Goderich, nor a store between London and Groderich. Mr. T^art's mode
of obtaining provisions was by taking his grist, with an oxen team, and going thirty
miles to the nearest mill, where he also received his mail. At that time a horse was
not to be found in all the Huron tract of land. Edward, the father of oar subject,
claimed as ancestor the Duke of Argyle. He married Martha Colton in 1818, by whom
he had seven children, viz , James, Robert, Mary, Jane, Edward W., John and RacheL
Dr. Tegart came to Brant County in 1860, and here he has since resided. He married
in 1858. Augubta A. Clement, daughter of Robert A. Clement, and granddaughter of
Major Clement, of the British army of 1812. The Doctor has two children, Robert £.
and Alma T. J., aged 20 and 17. He owns 200 acres of land, pleasantly situated near
the Village of Scotland. At the age of ten years he did not know how to read, there
being no schools in the locidity where he was born. At the age of 14 his mother died,
after which he left home without a dollar. He has since acquired all his property and
a medical education, having graduated from the Medical Departments at Toronto and
Cobqurg University. He was bom in the Huron tract, on December 21, 1835, and
is now doing a large practice in medicine and surgery.
JAMES WHEELAND, farmer, Scotland P.O., was born in Scotland, Brant
County, March 30, 1 844. He was a son of Thomas and Maranah (Smith) Wheeland.
The career of Thomas may be found elsewhere in this volume. James Wheeland
married November 4, 1868, Margaret P., daughter of James H. Bessey, of St. Catharines
James Bessey is a retired Major of Militia, a J.P., and Township Clerk and Treasurer.
The children by this union are : Mary A., deceased, and M. Bessie, who was bom May
12, 1871. Mrs.Wheeland's grandfather was in the War of 1812, and is now a pensioner.
Her great-grandfather was an officer of the Indian Commissary Department during the
war. Mr. Wheeland owns a fine farm of 60 acres near the Village of Scotland, and is
an industiious and enterprising farmer. His family attend the Congregational Church.
THOMAS WINSKEL, farmer, Burford P.O., was born in Cumberland County,
England, in the year 1815. He lived in his native county until he was 5 or 6 years
old, when he went to an adjoining county, where he resided until 1832, when he
emigrated to Canada. Landing in Quebec, he came west to Toronto, and engaged in
the work of a carpenter and farmer ; and in 1841 he was married to Ann Trueman.
Leaving Toronto, after a residence there of thirteen years, he went to Norfolk County,
where he worked at the same business. In 1853 he moved to Burfoixi, and bought
100 acres of partly improved land : to which he has added 34 acres. It is now in a well
cultivated condition, and is continually being improved. Mr. and Mrs. Winskel are
members of the Congregational Church, and are much interested in matters of religion.
To Mr. and Mrs. Winskel have been born 12 children, 4 of whom are living, viz., Ann
J., Martha M, Phoebe C. and Agnes E. A. ; the others died in childhood. His parents,
Wm. Winskel and wife, Elizabeth, came to Canada at the same time, and settled in this
township, pui-chasing the land on which he died. He was a member of the Church of
£n«:land, and was the father of six children, viz., Thomas, William, John, Ann, Eliza-
beth and Margaret. He died about the year 1848, aged 60 yeara ; and Mrs. Winskel
died in 1850, in her 62nd year.
t
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 625
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP.
M. H. BALDWIN, farmer, Oakland P.O., was bom in New York State, March 26,
1826, and is a son of Moses and Phoebe Baldwin. Moses Baldwin was bom August 20,
1790, in the State of New Jersey, and died October 8, 1881. Mrs. Baldwin was bom
in New Jersey, October 2nd, 1790, and died October Ist, 1851. They were married
in that State November 14, 1812, and came to Canada in 1833, and settled in Oakland
Township, where they remained until their death. He was first a blacksmith and
then became a farmer. He became blind in 1838. M. H. Baldwin was married Dec. 4,
1851, to Nancy Smith, who was born in Ancaster Township, Nov. 30, 1835. They
are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he has been local minister
of the church for about fourteen years. He has held all the local offices in the church,
and is the oldest living member in Oakland. He has also been Township Councillor
for four years, and a Magistrate of Oakland Township two years. Mr. and Mrs. Bald-
win have had eight children, seven of whom survive — Lewis H., Melville N., Carman
B., Ella A., William, Kate, and Emerson. Susan (deceased), was bom June 2nd, 1853,
and died September 15 of same year. He and his wife, since their marriage, have
resided on the home farm, formerly owned by his father, consisting of 100 acres, to
which he has since added twenty-five acres. He is one of the leading citizens of the
township.
MALCOLM BROWN, farmer, is one of the oldest living pioneers of the County
of Brant He was born November 17, 1803, in what is now Oakland Township, as
was also his wife, Mary Fairchild, who was bom February 15, 1810. They were
married at Brantford February 5, 1828, by the Rev. Mr. Sugan. Mr. Brown has fol-
ly wed the occupation of farming, having lived on his present farm nearly fifty years^
His third son, Neal, was bom December 23, 1837, and married Sarah Ann Diamond,
November 23. 1864. Miss Diamond was born in Brantford Township, Februwry 22,
1843. Mr. and Mrs. Neal Brown have been blessed with twelve children, ten of
whom are now living, viz., John M., Mary M., Fleta A., Joseph K., Phoebe A., Fred-
erick A., Jennie, Florence Y., Maggie M., and Alice E. Mr. Brown rented for one
year from Mr. Pate, and then moved on his father's farm, where he now resides. He
is a Reformer in his political views, and is a member of the Canadian Order of
Foresters. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
ALFRED CHURCH, Oakland P.O., was born in Thorold Township, JYelland
County, Ontario, October 23, 1837. His father. John J. Church, was bom in Con-
necticut, October 11, 1808, and is now living in Norfolk County. His mother, whose
maiden name was Lida Davis, was born in Thorold Township in 1818, and is still
living. Both parents are quite industrious and spry for people of their yeai s, and
are engaged in farming. Alfred's wife, whom he manied December 25, 1861, was
Mary Ann Chapin, daughter of Charles and Maria (Fairchild) Chapin, and was bom
in Oakland Township, July 7, 1840. She has been a member of the Baptist Church
for twenty-four years. Mr. Church is an enterprising and successful farmer and stock-
raiser, and owns 150 acres of land. The home place, containing 100 acres, is finely
located and improved, with handsome buildings thereon. In politics Mr. Church
is a Reformer. One of the children died in infancy ; the other, Charles John, has
attended the collegiate course, and at present resides with his parents.
RICHARD COWLES, tailor, Oakland P.O., has been a resident of Oakland for
thirty-three years, and was born in the south of Wales on the lltli February, 1810.
His father, William Cowles. and his mother, Alice, were bom in Monmouth County,
Wales, where they lived and died. They were engaged in farming through life.
Hichard was married. May 2nd, 1850, to Mary Tolly; she was born in England, and
626 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
died in Oakland in 1858. He married, for his second wife, Hannah Messecar, March
31, 1860. She was born in Glanford Township, and died December 19, 1881. On
the 11th April, 1882, he married his third wife, Charlotte Smoke, who was bom in
Brant County in 1832. Our subject has been en/2;aged in tailoring business all his
life. Himself and wife are members of the Canada Methodist Church. His only
daughter, Eliza, was mairied to Robert Knowles, a carriage-maker, in Michigan. Mr.
Cowles has two houses and lots in Oakland, and has been fairly successful in life.
HENRY CUNNINGHAM (deceased), was bom in Oakland in June, 1819, and
was the son of George and Abigail Cunningham. His father was bom in Boston, and
his mother was also bom in the States. She was taken by the Indians when she was
a little girl. Her name was Mary Sett. Henry Cunningham had a common school
education, and followed the life of a farmer. He was married March 3rd, 1858, to
Hannah Stuttard, who came from England when five years of age. They had one
child, Charles, born January 15, 1859. He is a farmer and was never married, but
lives at home with his mother. Henry Cunningham was a successful farmer, and died
October 30, 1860.
WM. DEVLIN, farmer, Mohawk P. 0., was a son of John and Sarah (Jordan)
Devlin, natives of Ireland. John Devlin was born in Dec. 1811, and died Aug. 13,
1881. His wife was born in 1808, came to Canada with some relatives in 1815, and
now resides at Mount Pleasant. John Devlin came to York County, Ont., with
his parents' at the age of 1 7 years ; afterwards moved to Simcoe County ; thence
to Ontario County ; and from there liack to York County in 1853. He was married in
1836, and in 1863 moved to Brant County, where he remained until his death. He
was engaged in agricultural pursuits during life. Wm. Devlin was bom at Simcoe,
March 20, 1838, received a common school education, and was married Not. 24, 1862.
His wife was Hannah Ransom, born Dec. 9, 1838, and daughter of Thomas and Anna
Ransom. Mr. and Mrs. Devlin have three children, viz. : Julia, bom May 28, 1864 ;
Annetta, bom Oct. 8, 1867; and John W., bom March 2, 1876. Mr. Devlin has been
successful in life, and is one of the leading citizens in Oakland -Township. He is a
member of the United Order of Workmen; was School Trustee one year; Reeve for
three years, and is at present Warden of the County of Brant.
ROBERT EADIE, Jr, deceased, was bom in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct 28, 1825,
and was a son of Robert and Eliza (McLaws) Eadie, neither of whom are now living.
Robert Kadie, Sr., died May 25, 1882. The subject of our sketch came to Canada in
1842, and on the 17th of Feb., 1851, married Martha Swift. Miss Swift was bom in
New York, Jan. 26, 1833, and when ten years of age came to Canada. Mr. and Mrs.
Eadie were blessed with a family of eleven children, six sons and five daughters, all
of whom are living. Their names are Robert, Emily, Ebenezer, James. George, Andrew,
Eliza, Martha, Beatrice, Charles and Ethel May. Of these Robei*t taught school one
year, studied for the ministiy, and is now teaching in Guelph ; George is studying to
become a dentist; Andrew is studying medicine ; and Eliza is married to Mr. Samuel
Eddy. Mr. Eadie was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and hiinself
and wife members of the Congregational Church in this country. He was a sucessful
farmer through life ; he started with nothing, but during his life purchased 200 acres
of land in Oakland Township, wliich is splendidly improved; and remains in the pos-
session of the family. He was a Reformer in politics, and filled several positions of
trust and responsibility. He was a member of the Town Council for one ytor, and
was for several years a Magistrate in Oakland Township, and also a Deacon in the
Congregational Church. His death occurred Nov. 25, 1879.
ROBERT EADIE, Sn. (deceased), was born in Scotland, April 13, 1798, and was a
son of Robert and Isabel (Sharp) Eadie. He married for his first wife Eliza McLaws,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 627
in Glasgow, and moved to Canada in 1842 ; she died in 1863. His second wife wa»
Margaret France, born in Scotland, Nov. 10, 1833, and married Feb. 12, 1864. She
' came to this country when 30 years of age, and settled in Oakland Township, where
she at present resides on the home farm. Mr. Eadie was a prominent and consistent
member of the Congregational Church in the Village of Scotland, as is also Mrs. Eadie»
He had seven children by his first wife and three by his s3Cond, who are now living.
Mr. Eadie was successful in business in Glasgow, and after his arrival in Canada fol*
lowed the occupation of farming, owning 150 acres at the time of his decease. He
belonged to the Reform party. He was for a time one of the old landmarks of Brant
County, and died May 25, 1882, in the 85th year of his age. '
JOHN A. EDDY, merchant and Postmaster, Scotland P.O., was born in Burford
Township July 18, 1855, and is a son of Constant and Ann (Emmonds) Ekidy. Hi»
father was bom in Oakland Township April 1, 1817, and his mother was bom in
Oakland September 21, 1817, and died September 21, 1848. They were married
in Oakland Township November 7, 1837. His father was a farmer. John A.
Eddy was married Aug. 16, 1882, to Alma Messecar^ who was bom June 15, 1861,
and was a daughter of Gilbert and Sussana Messecar. Our subject had a grammar
school education, and has bought property in Scotland, where he is keeping a general
store such as is kept in a country town, and he has a good country trade. He has been
engaged in business for five years, and has been Postmaster for two years. He is an
enterprising youn<; merchant, and has been very successful in business. Mr. and Mrs.
Eddy are respected by all who know theuL
HENRY GILLETT, farmer, Oakland P.O., was bom in Kingston, Dec. 25, 1822,
and is the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Crimmon) Gillett. His father was bom in
Ireland and his mother in Canada ; they were married in Canada. Mrs. (Crimmon^
Gillett died about 1872 at Bearbrook. His father married a second time, and died in
the States. He was Paymaster in the British army. The subject of our sketch was
married March 5, 1852, to Mary Bigs. Miss Bigs was bom in Ancaster Nov. 25,
1822, and was a daughter of Richard Bigs. Mr. Gillett and his wife are members of
the Canadian Methodist Church. When a boy he received a common school education,
and afterwards engaged in farming. To Mr. and Mrs. Gillett have been bom eight
children, of whom five are living, viz., Ellen, Elizabeth,^ Richard, Archibald and
Louisa. Mr. Gillett has resided in Oakland since his removal from Ancaster in 1880.
He has been generally successful through life, and is well respected by all who know him..
GEORGE HALL, hotel-keeper, Scotland P.O., was bom in Sussex, England, and
is a son of Thomas and Emma (Ralph) HalL His father and mother were bom in
England, and came to Canada, where his mother died March 15, 1871. His father waa
bom Sept 15, 1807, and is now living in Mount Pleasant. They were married in
England, and came to Canada with ten children. He wai^ a farmer. George Hall was
married Jan. 1, 1855, to Frances M. Smith, who was born in England Dec. 28, 1835,.
and died March 7, 1872. He married for his second wife Mary M. Messecar. She wai»
bom in Oakland Township Aug. 25, 1845, and is a daughter of Hiram and Ann A. M..
(Armstrong) Messecar. He is a member of the Foresters. He acquired a common
school education, firet rented the hotel where he resides for one year, then bought it,
and has been keeping the hotel for eleven years past. Mr. Hall has eight children,,
viz.: Susan A., bom Oct. 15, 1855 ; Elizabeth, March 15, 1857 ; William R., Feb. 26,
1859 ; Edward D., Aug. 20th, 1861 ; Hattie B., April 9, 1866 ; George E., March 3,
1869; Henry A., March 27, 1875; and Anna M., Oct. 31, 1877. Mr. Hall haa
succeeded well in business.
SAMUEL HUNTER, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bom in Ireland Jan. 22, 1842,
and is the son of Alexander and Mary (Finlay) Hunter. His father and mother were
628 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
bom in Ireland, and were also married there in 1839. Alex. Hunter, who was a farmery
died Jan. 20, 1882 ; Mrs. Hunter is living, and resides in Belfast, Ireland. Samuel
Hunter was married the iirst time to Sarah Hunter, April 20, 1869 ; she was bom in
1841, and died July 20, 1875. He married for his second wife Emily A. Backus, widow
of Wm. W. Backus. Her maiden name was Miss Dean ; she was bom in Hartford,
Norfolk Co., Dec. 21, 1841, and was a daughter of Stafford and Selina Dean. Mr.
Hunter and his first wife were Congregational ists, while his second wife is a member
of the Baptist Church. He received his education at a common school. To Mr.
Hunter and his fiist wife were born two children, one of whom is living — Arthur A.,
bom May 17, 1872; by his second wife he had two children, one surviving, viz. :
Alexowna M. S., bom July 9, 1879. He first followed the blacksmith trade for 25
years, and then engaged in fruit-growing and bee-keeping on 50 acres, which he owns,
near Scotland and whare he resides ; his land is well improved, and Mr. Hunter has
been very successful through life. He is a member of the School Board of Trustees at
the present time.
HENRY KEY, farmer, Oakland P.O., was bom in Cumberland County, England,
Oct. 11. 1840, and is a son of George and Barbara (Benn) Key. His father was bom
in England, Sept 18, 1791 ; his mother was bom in England, April 29, 1798, and
died Dec. 9, 1S74. Mr. Key died in Aug., 1848. They were married and came to
this country in 1845, and settled in Brantrord Township, where the}- remained about
a year, then removed to Oakland Township. He was engaged in farming through life.
Mr. Henry Key was married Mav 21, 1868, to Julia Ann Reynolds, who was bom in
Oopetown, Wentworth County, July 19, 1845, and was a daughter of William G. and
Catherine Reynolds. She is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Key
are members of the Royal Templars of Temperance. He is filling the office of Town-
ship Clerk, and was seven years in the CounciL He was also Assessor in the year
1875, and is a J. P. He acquired a common school education. He owns 100 acres in
Windham Township. He still resides in Oakland Township, on the farm of Mrs.
Downs, of Brantfordy where he has resided since 1846. To Mr. and Mrs. Key have
been bom 7 children, of whom 5 survive : James A., bom 16 Dec., 1868 ; Nettie L.,
born July 15, 1870; Barbara L., Sept 5, 1872; Margaret K, June IC, 1877 ; and
Henry O., Jan. 30, 1879. Mr. Key is one of the most successful and respected citizens
in the township.
MICHAEL LTJNN, deceased, was a resident of Oakland Township. He was bom in
Ireland Aug. 10, 1816, and was a son of Patrick and Mai^ret Lunn, who were bom
and married in Ireland, where the former was engaged in farming. Michael Lunn was
married on April 20, 1844, to Bridget Graham. She was bom in Ireland on the
5th of August, 1825, and was a daughter of James and Mary Graham. Her mother
is still living. Mr. Lunn and his wife came to Canada in 1847 ; lived in Brantford five
years, and then moved to Oakland Township. He received a common school education.
To Mr. and Mrs. Lunn were born 7 children, 5 of whom are now living. Mr. and
Mrs. Lunn were members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Lunn was successful in
business, and was respected by all who knew him. James and Thomas, since their
father's death, have managed the farm of 85 acres, while thu three sisters assisted their
mother at home.
ELIAKIM MALCOLM, hotel-keeper, Scotland P. O., was born in Scotland, Feb.
11, 1829, and is a son of Eliakim and Samantha (Sexton) Malcolm. His father,
Eliakim Malcolm, Sr.; was born in Oakland Township Dec. 10, 1801, and died Sept.
26, 1874. His mother was born in Virginia in 1806 ; she was a daughter of Jonathan
Sexton, of Vermont, where she was bom. They came to Canada in 1806, and she was
married to Mr. Malcolm in 1822. He died at the age of 73 years and 6 months ; he
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 629
was a surveyor and conveyancer, having been one of the first surveyors in the County
of Brant; he also managed a farm. Our subject was married Dec. 22, 1850, to
Emily Smith, who was born Jan. 29, 1827, and was a daughter of Isaac and Abigail
Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm are members of the Congregational Chuich, and he is
a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Canadian Order of Foresters. Acquiring
a common school education, he engaged in farming, then turned his attention to the
lumbering business, which he followed for 15 years, afterwards keeping the hotel
where he resides. He has been keeping the hotel known as the Jackson House about
7 months. To Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm have been bom 9 children — 6 boys and 3 girls :
Walter E., born May 26, 1852; Alfireda S., June 16, 1855; James H., Sept. 13,
1857 ; Francis E., April 6th, 1859 ; Isaac E., Feb. 4, 1861 ; Fredie, Dec. 27, 1863;
Sophronia L., Oct. 1, 1865 ; Esther K, June 23, 1867 ; John, July 4, 1869. Mr.
Malcolm has always been most successful in every business.
ISAAC BROCK MALCOLM (deceased), was born August 4th, 1812, in what is
now Oakland Township, Brant County, Ontario, and died May 2nd, 1856. His parents
were Finley and Fanny Malcolm. Finlcy Malcolm was bom in Nova Scotia, and died
about the year 1862, his wife having preceded him in 1859. Isaac married, November
25th, 1835, Miss Charlotte Smith, a native of Ancaster Township. She was the
daughter of Isaac and Abigail Smith, and was bom February 20th, 1844. When Mr.
and Mrs. Malcolm were married the country was new, and bears and deer were abun-
dant. But Mr. Malcolm was a successful farmer, and at the time of his death had 280
acres of land and a pleasant and comfortable home, which he left to his family. He
was a Eeformer in his political views, a member of tha Congregational Church, and an
excellent citizen. Mrs. Malcolm is at present living on 100 acres of the original home-
stead. They have had six children, all of whom are living, and are named as follows :
Finley, Charlotte, Fanny, Abbie, Henry and Isaac C.
MAKCnS MALCOLM, woollen manufacturer, Scotland P. C, is one of the pro-
prietors of the woollen mills, and is also one of the firm known as M. Malcolm & Son.
He was bom in Oakland Township, March 6, 1830, and is a son of Oeorge and Eliza-
beth Malcolm. George Malcolm was bom in Brant County, August 5, 1806. His
mother died a number of years ago. George married for his second wife Miss Sarah
Beemer, who was bom in Norfolk ; both are now living in Paris. He has been engaged
in farming and the woollen basiness, but has now retired from active life. Marcus
Malcolm was married in January, 1851, to Huldah Ann Bugbee, who was bom in
Vermont in May, 1830, and was a daughter of Jabez and Angelina Bugbee. They are
both consistent members of the Congregational Church ; he is a member of the Masonic
Order and Canadian Order of Foresters. He acquired a common school education, and
has always been engaged in the woollen business. Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm have had four
children, of whom two survive, viz.: George H., bom August 3, 1853, and who is
engaged with his father in woollen goods manufaotnring — ^he is married ; August G.,
bom October 30, 1864, is attending the Collegiate Institute at Brantford. The firm
of M. Malcolm & Son have been very suocessfuL They manufacture from the raw
material into cloth, which they wholesale and retail, but principally the former. Mr.
Malcolm has filled the office of J. P. eleven years, has served in the Council twelve
years, and is Commissioner in B. B. for taking affidavits.
WILLIAM C. MALCOLM, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bom in Burford Township,
October 12, 1826, and is a son of Duncan and Jane (Heron) Malcolm. His father was
bom aboard ship August 1, 1798, between the United States and Canada, under the
American flag and in British waters ; he died Oct. 31, 1866. His mother was bom in
Niagara, Canada, August 16, 1802. They were married in Canada, March 29, 1825 ;
he was a farmer. Wm. C. Malcolm was married, June 24, 1855, to Amanda J. Eburk-
630 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
inson, who was born in Hamilton, September 12, 1832, and was a daughter of William
and Nancy Harkinson. Mrs. Malcolm is a member of the Congregational ChorcL
He has fiUed the office of Councillor and Constable of Oakland ; be acquired a com-
mon school education, and then engaged in farming ; he bought 50 acres from his
father, and has succeeded in making a nice home for himself and family. To Mr. and
Mrs Malcolm have been bom two children, viz.: Mary Malvinia M., bom May 14,
1856, was mamed November 26, 1879, to Josiah Bennett Terryberry — they live in
Burford Township ; and Eugene 6., bom June 7, 1860.
JOHN MAEKLE, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bom in the Township of Chingca-
cousy, Canada, Jan. 20, 1831. His father, John Markle, Senr., was bom in Pennsyl-
vania, Dec. 5, 1794. His mother's maiden name was Anna Boughner, bom July 27,
1793. Both parents died in Canada. Our subject was married Dec. 23, 1852. His
first wife, Mary C. Markle, died June 17, 1867. On Oct 17, 1867, he married Jane
Murray, who was bom in Burford, Jan. 27, 1847. At the age of 35 he began life for
liimself on a farm of 100 acres, given him by his father. This he afterwards sold, and
bought 50 acres, where he now resides. He at one time kept a hotel for 18 months at
Bracebridge, Himself and wife are members in good standing of the Baptist Charch,
SB was also his first wife. He has had five children, of whom three — Mary Ann, Sarah
Jane and John McCoy — are now living. He has been prosperous and successful
through life.
ROBERT MARKLE, farmer, Scotland P.O., was born in Chinguacousy, Peel Ca,
Ontario, on 23rd March, 1822. His father, John Markle, was bom in Pennsylvania,
snd his mother, whose maiden name was Anna Boughner, was a native of New Jersey.
Roth parents died in Canada. Mr. Markle was married June 20, 1848, to Miss Sarah
€. Longshiel, who died May 22, 1860. On 16th Nov., 1862, he married Nancy J.
Elliot, a native of Canada, bom in 1828. He had four chOdren by his first wife, of
whom Eliza Ann and Lewis B. are living, and both married. By his present wife he
liad two children, of whom one, Archibald, is living. At the age of 26 Mr. Markle
began farming for himself. His father gave him 100 acres, which he sold, and after-
wards bought 50 acres ; this he sold, and bought 100 acres, where he now lives. As
a farmer he has been quite successful. Mr. Markle is a Conservative in politics, and
himself and wife are. consistent members of the Baptist Church.
BENJAMIN B. MERRITT, farmer, was bom in New Branswick, April 28, 1835,
and is the son of Abraham and Sarah (Hendry) Merritt Abraham Merritt was bom
in New Brunswick Jan. 12, 1796, and died in Oakland Township June 30, 1861. Ha
married for his second wife Mrs. Sarah (Hendry) Van Wart. He was a fanner
through life. Benjamin B. Merritt was married May 31, 1859, to Rhoda M. Clarke.
She was bora in New Brunswick, Oct 27, 1838, and was a daughter of Benjamin and
Maria J. Clarke. They were married in New Brunswick. He and his wife are
members of the Baptist Church. He acquired a common school education. He first
engaged in farming, and bought 100 acres of land, where he now resides. His farm is
in a high state of cultivation, and has nice buildings on it. To Mr. and Mrs. Merritt
have been bom three children, of whom two survive, viz., Clara A., born June 18,
1861 ; and L Clarke, bom Aug. 30, 1880. Effie J. was bom Nov. 5, 1875, and died
Aug. 21, 1876.
CALEB MERRITT, deceased, was bom in Queen's County, New Branswick,
March 14th, 1798, and is a son of Gilbert and Phoebe Merritt. His father and mother
were bom on the Hudson River, New York ; they were married in New Brunswick,
where he was a firmer, and died there ; his mother attained the age of 97 years.
Oaleb Merritt was married Oct. 24tb, 1826, to Hannah Underbill, who was bom July
26th, 1809, in Queen's County, New Brunswick, and was a daugliter of Thomas and
BIOOKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 631
Mary Underhill. He had a common school education. Both Mr. and Mrs. Merritt
were members of the Baptist Church. To Mr. and Mi-s. Men*itt have been born ten
children, of whom seven survive — Bobert, Isaac B., Mary, Thomas, Sarah A., Gilbert
and Phoebe £. He first engaged in farming, having bought 150 acres, where his
widow resides. He died Sept. 16th, 1874, very much respected by all who knew him,
And leaving to his family a nice home, where they yet remain.
MATTHEW MESSECAR, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bom in Oakland Township,
Sept. 6th, 1826, and is a son of Matthew and Mary (Clouse) Messecar. His father
«nd mother were born in New Jersey, and from there they moved to Canada when
they were quite young. After being married they first settled in Norfolk County,
«nd then removed to Brant County, where they ^^ere among the first settlers. He was
a farmer, and died in 1867; she is also dead. Mr. Matthew Messecar, our subject, was
married April 5th, 1852, to Alfreda Smith ; she was bom April 25th, 1832, and was
a daughter of Isaac and Abigail Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar are members of the
Congregational Church at Scotland, and he has been a School Trustee for nine years.
He had a common school education given him. He first engaged in brickmaking for
two years, then turned his attention to farming. He rented for a number of years,
then bought 25 acres; he also inherited 100 acres, where he resides. To Mr. and Mrs.
Messecar have been born two children, viz. : Mai vena, bom July 24th, 1854; and
Anderson, bom June 28th, 1858 ; both are married and doing well. Mr. Messecar is
a prosperous and highly respected citizen.
TRUEMAN MESSECAR, farmer, Scotland P.O., was bora April 3, 1836, and is a
fion of Matthew and Lida (McCombs) Messecar. Matthew Messecar was born in New
Jersey, March 7, 1792j Mrs. Messecar was bom Feb. 24, 1816, and died April 2,
1843. He came to Canada when a boy, first settling in Norfolk County ; then moved
to Brant County, where he remained until his death. He was a farmer by occupation.
Trueman was married Nov. 12, 1852, to Ellen Hall, who was born in England, Oct.
13, 1832. She is a daughter of Thomas and Emma Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar hold
to the Baptist Church. He is also a member of the United Workmen. He had a
common school education given him, and then he rented a farm for three years. He
afterwards inherited 50 acres, where he now resides, and has since purchased 50 acres.
Mr. and Mrs. Messecar have been blessed with five children — Charles L., bom Oct.
20, 1863; Ida E., June 28, 1865; Rhoda, March 11, 1867 ; Elvira, AprU 1, 1869; and
Aletta E., July 13, 1880. Mr. Messecar has a nice home, where he resides, and has
succeeded very well in life.
WILLIAM MESSECAR, farmer, Scotland P.O.. was bora in Oakland Township,
where he residco, Nov. 2, 1835, and is a son of William and Anna (Slatt) Messecar.
His father was bom June 5, 1805, in Pennsylvania, whence he emigrated to Canada ;
settling first in Norfolk County, where he remained for a while ; then removed to
Brant, where he settled permanently. He died August 27, 1868. His mother was
bom in Norfolk County, May 4, 1807 ; she is still living with her son. Mr. William
Messecar, Sr., was a farmer, and was married in Norfolk County in 1825. Our sub-
ject was married Jan. 28, 1858, to Mary A. Clark, who was bom in England, Sept. 25,
1835, and is a daughter of Joseph and Margaret Clark. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar
are members of the Baptist Church. He has filled the office of School Trustee for 1 2
years. He first engaged in farming, having rented for 14 years ; he then inherited 42^
acres and bought 63 acres, making in all 105^ acres. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar have
two children, viz., Jennie, bom July 14, 1863, and Josephine, bom Augiilt 29, 1868.
He has prospered in life, and is very much respected by all who know him.
THOMAS MILLS, farmer, Oakland P.O., was bom in England October 16, 1828,
and is a son of Richard and Hannah (Wilson) Mills. Richard Mills was bom in
632 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
England in 1800, came to Canada in 1842, and settled in the County of Hastings.
He was a farmer by occupation, and died about the year 1876. Hannah, bis wife»
was bom in England, and died about 1854. Thomas Mills was married January 1,
1856, to Melissa Smith, who was bom in Oakland Township, September 5, 1837, and
who died February 17, 1872. For his second wile he married Carlotta, daughter of
Isaac and Charlotte (Malcolm) Brock. Carlotta was bom January 18, 1840, and
married Oct. 15, 1876. Mr. Mills had four children by his first wife, all living, viz.:
Mary M., bom December 19, 1856: George W., bom August 12, 1863; Frederick,
bom Sept. 3, 1868; and Susan H., bom July 9th, 1870. Mr. Mills followed the car-
penter business for seven years, ihen turned his attention to farming, and has been
fairly successful in life. Mr. and "Mrs. Mills are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, in which he has been a leader for about eight years, Steward about twenty-five
years, and Recording Steward over twenty years. He held the office of Township
Councillor four years, and has been Justice of the Peace for the past three years.
GEORGE PHILLIPS, Scotland P.O., was bom in New York, April 10, 1829, and
is a son of Thomas and Bridget (O'Dea) PhiUips. His Either and mother were both
bom in Ireland ; they were married there, and came to America about 1826, and
finally settled in Burford Township, Brant County. Mr. Thomas Phillips, who was a
tailor, died Aug. 29, 1867; his wife died Febmary 4, 1877. George Phillips, our
subject, was married November 14, 1854, to Mary Ann Grage, who was bom in Glan-
ford, March 17, 1831, and is a daughter of Charles and Phoebe (Smith) Gage. He was
bom Oct 17, 1808, and died May 1, 1878. Her mother was bom Nov. 7, 1810, and
is living with Mr. Phillips. Mr. Phillips is a member of the Roman Catholic, and his
wife is a member of the Methodist, Church. He filled the office of Postmaster for
two years, having received his commission in 1870; he resigned in May, 1881. Mr.
and Mrs. Phillips have been blessed with nine children, of whom six are living, viz.:
Phcebe Z., bom Sept. 23, 1858; Russel M., Nov. 4, 1860; Mary Ann, April 29, 1863;
George W., Oct. 21, 1858 ; Charles E., June 30, 1869 ; and Fred. A., Aug. 17, 1875.
Charles G., bom April 1, 185^, died June 28, 1877; Ida M. was bom Nov. 29, 1867,
and died Jan. 18, 1868 ; Margaret £. A., bom July 31, 1873, died June 3, 1874.
Mr. Phillips acquired a common school education, and he owns ten acres and three
houses and four lots in town^ and has been altogether very prosperous through life.
We subjoin an article on the death of Mr. Charles G. Phillips, who was dead and
interred in the State of Louisiana over a week before his parents knew of it. Louis-
iana paper : ''A man by the name of C G. Phillips died about a week ago. He was
a native of Canada, and has been in Louisiana about nine months. He was highly
spoken of by all who knew him, and was well educated."
T. W. SHAVELEAR, landlord, Oakland P.O., was the son of K. W. and Frances
Shavelear. His father was bom in New York September 25, 1799, and died in Norfolk
County, Canada, December 19, 1872. His mother was a native of Canada, bom
March 29, 1805, and died March 4, 1876. They were married December 9, 1821.
The father was a farmer, and came to Canada when quite young. The subject of this
sketch was bom February 24, 1840, and on the 13th of March, 1861, married Melissa,
daughter of Henry and Hannah Haines. Melissa was bom October 6, 1845. They
were engaged in farming until about 1870, since which time they have been keeping
hotel. Mr. Shavelear purchased a hotel in Norfolk, which he sold, and built another
in the same place. This he sold, and about three years ago rented the Union Hotel ai
Oakland, where he now resides. His wife is a member of the Disciples Church. They
have had five children, three of whom survive, viz. : Alice, bom Apnl 29, 1867 ; Daisy,
bom July 30, 1873 ; and Clarence, bom February 22, 1881. Mr. Shavelear has been
moderately successful in business, is a member of the Order of Orangemen, the United
Workmen, and the Canadian Order of Foresters.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 633
WALTER SMITH, farmer, Mohawk P.O., was bom in Oakland Township, Brant
County, May 11, 1834, and was a son of Isaac and Abii^ail Smith. Isaac was born in
New Jersey, December 20, 1788, and died in Canada, March 22, 1869. Abigail, his
wife, was bom in Port Dover, Canadd, May 12, 1789, and died May 16, 1862. Our
subject, when twenty yeais of age, learned the carpenter trade, an avocation he has
followed most of his lif& He owns a small farm in Oakland Townshij), splendidly
located and well improved. He was united in marriage May 15, 1860, with Jane
Smith, who was bom in Oakland Township May 6, 1842. He has been a member of
the United Workmen for two years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of five
children, viz., Ida M., Charles W., Lewis H , Susan E., and Frederick W.
GEORGE TAYLOR, merchant, Oaklaml P.O., was a son of Richard and Eliza
Taylor, and was born at Grimsby, November 5, 1831. His father, Richard Taylor,
was a native of the United States, and was bom in 1798. At the age of fifteen,
Richard enlisted in the army and participated iu the War of 1812-15. He was twice
married, his second wife's name being Mary Holton. His occupation was principally
that of farmer, although he at one time was engaged in the tanning business with
Mr. Smith Griffith, and at another kept a hotel near the Gaol at Niagara. He was
engaged in a skirmish at Stony Creek, and drew a pension for a few years previous to
his death. He died at Tilsonburg in February, 1 879. George Taylor was married in
May, 1867, to Augusta Starr, a granddaughter of Major Westbrook. She was bom
at Brantfordin 1850. They had two children, viz. : George J., born July 11, 1868;
Nolle Estelle, born April 17, 1881. Mr. Taylor has been Postmaster for eighteen
years, firat keeping at Burtch. He has kept store twenty-one years, and carries a full
line of groceries, dry goods, and everything usually kept in a country store. He began
with nothing, and has been quite successful, having a good trade, and owns the build-
ing in which the store and residence are located. He is a pleasant and agreeable
gentleman, and a good business man.
WILLIAM THOMPSON, farmer, Mohawk P.O., was bom in Ireland in May,
1801 ; his father, Michael Thompson, was at that time a soldier in the Royal Meath
Militia, and in 1806 volunteered for seven years in the First Royal Scots. In the
fall of 1811 the regiment was ordered to the West Indies, and in June, 1812, they
were ordered to'Canada. In the interval war was declared between Great Britain and
the United States. The command was then sent west, and participated in the several
battles fought in western Canada, particularly at Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and the
siege of Fort Erie. In the two former the Royals were noticed for their valour, and
received special acknowledgment from the officers in command at Lundy's Lane. Mr.
Thompson was wounded slightly and taken prisoner, but made his escape and joined
his regiment again before the close of the battle. In 1815, immediately after the
close of the war, he was discharged as sergeant, which office he held for some years
previous. After serving his King and country for over twenty yean, soon after hia
discharge hia wife died, and in a short time he too sunk into final rest, leaving three
children, two of whom survive, William and Samuel. In 1817 the former came to
what is now the County of Brant, and in 1822 learned the blacksmith trade. He
established the first smithy in Oakland Township in 1824. He married Miss Lucinda
M. Sayles, a young lady bom in the township in 1806. In 1826 he discontinued the
blacksmith business, and settled on his present &nn of 175 acres. During his resid-
ence in Oakland, a term of sixty-one yeara, he has taken an active part in political,,
educational, and municipal matters connected with the county and township. He
was honoured by Lord Monck with a Captain's commission in the Militia, which office
he resigned. He has served as Reeve and Councillor in the township several ytiars,
and as Warden of the county one year. He has held a commission as Justice of the
38
J
634 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Peace for maoy years, and was one of the oldest in the county. Last, but not least,
iLe is the oldest member of the Masonic Fraternity in the county, having been a mem-
^ber over threescore years.
JOHN WAUGH, merchant, Oakland P.O., bom in Ancaster April 21, 1832,
^vas the son of Thomas and Julia (£mery) Waugh, who were married in Canada, bis
'father dying when John was quite smalL John married Phoebe Ann Shipman, Sept.
•3, 1859. She was the daughter of Paul and Mary Shipman, and was bom June 15,
1839. Mr. Waugh was for some time engaged in farming. He rented for five years,
then bought 50 acres of land. This he sold, and then purchased a farm of 65 acres,
which he afterwards traded for town property and his present store in Oakland. He
keeps a general stock of goods, and has a fair countiy trade. . Mr. and Mrs. Waugh
have been blessed with 9 children, viz. : Enima J., bom July 29, 1863 ; Ida £., bom
August 30, 1865 ; Anna M., bom Apiil 6, 1867 ; Clara, bom May 20, 1868 ; Catharine
M., bom October 5, 1869 ; William, bom December 5, 1871 ; Thomas, bom September
18, 1873 ; Edith, bom December 5, 1875 ; and Bertie A., bom February 27, 1881.
Of these Ida E. died December 20, 1880, and Anna M. died May 27, 1867. Mr.
Waugh is a member of the United Workmen, and himself and wife are consistent
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
ABRAHAM WESBROOK, farmer, Oakland P.O., was bom in Oakland Township,
August 9, 1844, and is the son of Mordecai and Mary Ann (Shaver) Wesbrook. His
father was born in Oakland in 1800, and died March 27, 1883. His mother was
bom in Ancaster September 6, 1806 ; she died October 6, 1847. They were married
si the latter place June 21, 1825. He was engaged in farming through life. Abraham
Wesbrook was married September 23, 1868, to Hannah £. Brown. She was bom
October 6, 1848, and is a cUtughter of Archibald and Rebecca Brown. Her father is
•dead, but her mother still lives.* His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
«Church. He received a common school education, and has filled the offices of Councillor
And School Trustee. He has been engaged in farming through life, having first
rented. He inherited from his father 108 acres, and to it has added 27 acres. To
^r. and Mrs. Wesbrook have been bom six children, of whom five are living : Albert,
hora March 1, 1872 ; Robert A., March 13, 1875; Charles H., December J 4, 1877 ;
^Frederick L., Febraary 19, 1879; and Roy £., January 14, 1881. Archibald, bom
October 4, 1869, died May 17, 1870. Mr. Wesbrook has been vei7 successful through
iife.
ONONDAGA TOWNSHIP.
JOHN ARMOUR, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was bom in August, 1808, in County
Tyrone, Ireland. He is a sou of Thomas Armour and Jane Graham, his wife, whose
history appears with that of her son, Thomas Armour. John Armour married Nov.,
1843, Yanicia Arthur. She was the third child of Samuel Arthur. They are mem-
bers of the Presbyterian Church, and are the parents of five children, viz., Isabelle
Jane, died 1875 : Samuel, died 1873 (each received injuries from the running away of
s. team, from which they never recovered) ; Thomas, now assisting his father at home ;
Margaret Eliza, who died 1875 ; and Matilda, who married James Milligan. Mr.
Armour has watched the growth of this section from a mere Indian sugar camp to its
present population. His history of the old Kirk of England is very interesting. Mr.
Armour had a bright family, with whom he took much comfort He is a Reformer in
politics.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 635 *
THOMAS ARMOUR, farmer, Tascarora P.O., was born December 25, 1810, in
Ireland, and came to Canada with his brother in 1834. They first settled in Halton
County, and in 1834 Thomas Armour bought his present farm in this county. In 1844
Mr. Armour married Margery, daughter of John Boylan, natives of Ireland. The
children by this marriage are Andrew, William J., Thomas G., Charles H., Jane A.,
Martha, Isabella and Margery, three being married and one deceased. Mra. Jane
Robinson, Thomas' mother, lives with her son, at the advanced age of 95 years. She
is a remarkable woman; has good memory, and enjoys good health. Mr. Armour owns
s, good farm, and is one of the old intelligent landmarks left standing in the county. He
has held the office of Justice of the Peace for many years.
JOHN BATEMAN, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was born March 14, 1845, in Tusca-
rora^ Brant County, Ontario. He was a fion of James and Sarah (Wilkinson) Bateman.
They emigrated to Canada in 1833, settled first in Tuscarora, and in Onondaga in 1846,
where Mr. Bateman died in 1878. He was bom in England in 1804. In his family
of ten living children, John was the seventh. He married, June 1, 1875, Elizabeth J,
Walden, by whom he had three children, viz., Morley J., Sarah A. and Mary M. Mr.
Bateman is a prosperous farmer, and owns a fine farm, situated on Grand River, com-
manding a beautiful view. They are members of the Methodist Church.
JOHN BARROWCLOUGH, farmer, Brantford P.O., is a son of Thomas and Mary
^Nutto) Barrowclough, natives of England, where Mrs. Barrowclough still resides. Mr.
Barrowclough followed the tanner's trade until his death, which occurred February 22,
1870. His son John was married February 19, 1852, to Alice Pickup, and emigrated
to Canada in 1855, settling where he now lives, on Grand River. His children are
£ve in number. Mr. Barrowclough received a limited education ; he was enrolled in
the Militia of the Dominion, under Captain Carlton. He is a thrifty farmer, and one
of the substantial men of his neighbourhood. He is a member of the Church of England,
and a Conservative in ))olitics.
JOHN BINGHAM, Onondaga Township and Onondaga P.O., was the son of
Slisha and Anna (Huffman) Bingh&m, and was bom in the Township of Glanford,
Oounty of Wentworth, the 19th January, 1819, where he resided until the year 1851,
when he removed to Walsingham, remaining there till 1868, when he removed to this
<;ounty. He married, 18th September, 1842, Ann Smith, daughter of Henry L. and
Elizabeth (VanDrew) Smith, fdie having been bom the 24th May, 1820. There was
'bom unto these parents twelve children, six sons and six daughters, viz., Milton
Angelo, bom May 28, 1843, lost his life by drowning June 20, 1V45 ; Eliza Jane, liv-
ing at home ; George, printer and publisher ; Minerva and Hiram (twins) — Minerva
<lied September, 1847 ; Hiram was married to Miss Emilia Waite, now living in Brant-
ford, a machinist by trade ; John, at home, farmer and butcher; Albert, died 29th of
July, 1861 ; Alice A., at home ; Almyra, died in infancy ; Wm. H., living in the
Village of Wiarton, County of Bruce, a printer by trade ; Anna M., at home ; Sarah
£. George, the eldest son, was married to Miss Amanda M. Powles, and has one
«hild, May Malvina. Elisha Bingham, the father of this subject, was bom 9th of
May, 1794, in Lebanon, N. H, came to Canada in 1816, and on the 9th of October,
1817, he married Anna Hufi&nan, who was bom on the 16th of July, 1797, in the
Township of Glanford, County of Wentworth ; settled in the Township of Glanford,
And remained there until 1853-4, and removed to Walsingham, and there remained
until she died, which occurred 30th of April, 1871; his followed on the 20th of Aug.,
1876. Of his children — eight sons and two daughters — eight are now living, viz.,
John and James D., Alfred and Christopher, William G. and Wesley, Melissa and
Egerton K. Elisha Bingham was the son of Alfred and Deborah Ticlmor, natives of
1^. H He oame to Canada in the year 1828 or 1829, settled in Ajicaster, County of
636 r HISTORY OF BKANT COUNTY.
Went worth. The wife of Elisha Bingham was the daughter of Christopher and
Nancy Smith (Huffman), who was bom in N. J., and emigrated to Canada in the year
1791-2 as a U. £. L. Mr. John Bingham was in the Rebellion of 1837-8; served under
Captb Birney, and for his services received the commission of Ensign and Quarter-
Master, dated October 24, 1838. He is of the Methodist persuasion, as is all his.
family, and is a Reformer in politics.
MYLES BIRKETT, farmer, Newport P.O.,was bom in the County of Westmoreland,
England, February 21, 1827. He is a son of William and Ellen (Bateman) Birkett^
natives of England, who came to America about 1831, first settling in the Township
of Cavan, and two years later locating near Brantford, where both died. They
had thirteen children, five boys and eight girls, of whom four boys and seven girls,
survive. Miles, the fifth child and second son, was raised on a farm in this township^
and attended the common schools of the county. He remained on his father's farm
until 22 years of age, when he began farming for himself, first renting land which he
cultivated for a short time. He then moved to lUinois, and for ten years engaged in.
farming in that State, after which he returned to this county, where he has since
resided, now being a resident of Onondaga Township. On April 10, 1849, he married
Rebecca, daughter of William and Ann Burrill, natives of Idncolnshire, England. By
this marriage twelve children were bom.
MICHAEL BROWN, farmer, Caledonia P.O., is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth
(Urie) Brown, of Scotland. They emigrated fi*om London, England, to Canada in
1834, first settled in New Brunswick, and in 1839 came to this county. They are the
parents of ten children, eight of whom are living, viz., William, Charlotte, Mary,
Joseph, Harriet, Elizabeth, John and Michael. They own a good farm of 200 acres.
Michael is a promising young farmer, highly respected by alL Mrs. Brown is now 54
years of age.
WILLIAM BROWN, carriage-builder, Middleport, a native of Ireland, was bom
in the year 1836, and emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1847. He is a son of
James and Mary (O'Grady) Brown, both of whom were bom in County Cork. On the
voyage out from the old country the fatKer died, leaving Mrs. Brown with her family
of young children to commence the battle.of life in the new land alone. She settled in
Hamilton, where our subject eventually learned his trade of one Fuller Smith. Of h«»r
family three sons and one daughter are now dead, and a son and daughter, Debina^
living. The latter married Bernard Garrick, and is at present living at Oswego, N.T.
William Brown, of whom we write, married, July 29, 1856, Bridget Morrow, daughter
of James and Bridget (Calahan) Moi*fow, and emigrated to Middleport in 1860. They
had bom to them ten children, viz. : WiUiam James, bom April 28, 1857 ; Charles
Augustine, bom Sept 15, 1858; Mary Frances, bom Sept 23, 1862; Thomas, bom
Jan. 2, 1865 ; Roeanna, bom Aug. 4, 1866 ; Lavina, bom April 12, 1868 ; E^n,
bom Jan« 11, 1871 ; John Levi, bom Nov. 5, 1873 ; Debina Alicia, bom Apnl 19,
1875; Thaddeus, bom Nov. 2, 1877. William J. married, 1878, Sarah Kingsley;
has two children, Essie and Ellas ; is a blacksmith, and resides at East Saginaw, Mich.
Charles A. is a carriage-maker, residing at Bay City, Mich., and Thomas is a law
student at Brantfoid. Mrs. Brown's father is from Ireland, and is still living in Brant-
ford, at the advanced age of 88 years. Her mother died in Ireland in 1843, when Mr&
Brown was four years old. Their family were Jo|in, Thomas, Jamesy ^Mary, Rosa^
Ann and Bridget, all bom in County Cavan. Mary is dead ; Rosa married M. Gum,
and resides in Brantford ; Ann is also married, and lives at Detroit, Mich. William
Brown, our subject, is carrying on a prosperous enterprise in his line at Middleport^
and gaining a substantial competency. His family are members of the Roman Catholic
Church, and attend the churoh at* Brantford. He is a Reformer in politica
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 637
ALEXANDER BUCHANAN, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was born in Ireland Aug.
IG, 1826. He was the son of John and Margaret (Brown) Buchanan. Mr. Buchanan
•came to Canada with his father in 1835. He followed carpentry for a time, afterwards
taking up farming, which occupation he has since followed. His wife was Margaret
Bateman, of Onondaga Township; she died Jan. 4, 1879, leaving eleven children, as
follows : George, bom Aug. 13, 1852 ; Charles, born Feb. 23, 1854 ; John, born Oct.
1, 1856; Susan S., bom Dec. 20, 1859 ; Sarah M., born Oct. 28, 1861, died May 7,
1863; Anna A., bom July 21, 1862; Esther E., bom July 8, 1864; Ida E., bora
■Jan. 12, 1866 ; James 0., born June 5, 1867 ; Robert A, bom Feb. 28, 1869 ; Thos.
E., born April 22, 1872 ; Albert M., bom Nov. 2, 1873. Mr. Buchanan owns 136
acres of good land. He is giving his children a good education.
ALFRED BURRELL, farmer, Onondaga P. O., was bom November 11, 1856. He
was a son of the late William BurrelL whose biography appears in this work. He
married Feb. 11, 1875, Elizabeth Henderson, daughter of James Henderson. They
•are the {Mirents of three children, viz.: Virgil W., bom January 24, 1876 ; James A.,
born July 16, 1879 ; and LueJla I., bom Februai7 19, 1881. Mr. Burrell and family
«re members of the Canada Methodist Church. He owns a fine farm, situated in the
valley of Grand River.
ALEXANDER C ALDER, farmer, Carluke P. 0., is a son of John and Margaret
^Martin) Calder, natives of Scotland, who, with two sons, came to Canada in 1840 ;
the remainder of the family, with the exception of one daughter, came in 1842 — she
•came in 1846. They settled in Ancaster, Wentworth County, where he died, leaving
ten children, all of whom came to Canada. Alexander came to this county in 1849.
He was married in 1856 to Mary Forbes, who died in 1869, leaving four children, viz. ;
Margaret, Christine, John and William. Mr. Calder is a member of the Unitarian
•Church, and his family were christened, but are not, as would be considered, members
^f the church ; ^Maggie is a Baptist. Mr. Calder has one of the best cultivated and
improved farms in the country.
JAMES CHAPMAN, farmer, ConboyviUe P. O., was bom December 8, 1829, and
is a son of James and Jeanette (Wilson) Chapman. They were married in 1823 in
•Scotland, and coming to Canada in 1838, spent one year in Montreal, and in July,
1839, settled on the premises now occupied by our subject. Their land was a part of
the Indian Surrender Lands, and had been stripped of its best timber by lumbermen.
In their family of five children, James, the eldest, married, April 2, 1857, EUza Ann
Feiris, who was born in 1834. They became the parents of twelve children, eleven of
whom are living, viz., William, Mary Jane, Jessie, James A., John, Sarah, Anna,
Robert, George, Maggie and Andrew, most all of them living at home. Mr. Chapman,
.and family are adherents of the Presbyterian Church. Ho is a Reformer in politics.
Mrs. Chapman died April 24, 1877.
JOHN WILLIAM COLMAN, farmer, Newport, was born in Brantford Township,
And was a son of Miles and Isabella (Watson) Colman. His paternal grand-parents were
Miles and Isabe la Colman, those on his mother's side being William and Elizabeth
i(Banowclough) Watson. He married Sarah Wilson Darnley, daughter of George
Wilson and Rachel (Ellis) Darnley, natives of Brant County, and had two children —
Ellis Wilson and Miles Garfield. Mr. Colman re ^eived a limited education in early
life, but has, by industry, integrity and thrift, been rewarded by a large measure of
-success. He now owns 119 acres of excellent farming land, situated on the Grand
River, immediately opposite Newpoi*t. His farm is well improved, and under a high
^tate of cultivation.
THOMAS CONBOY, farmer, ConboyviUe P.O., is a son of Thomas and Bridget
^Renolds) Conboy, and was born Sept. 29, 1849. His father came from Ireland in
638 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
1832, and was one of the early settlers of the county. In his day they were obliged to
carry their wheat and com on their backs to the mill to be gronnd The trials of to-day-
have no comparison to those of that period. He had six children, viz.: Frank, a car-
penter in Brantfoi*d ; Lucy, wife of William Swartz, in California ; Charlotte, wife of
James Scott; Elizabeth, wife of S. J. McKehey, now in Middleport; James, at home;.
Thomas, who married, March 8, 1876, Miss Joanna Cochrell. They are the parents
of two children — Mary Augusta, born December 25, 1876, and Alicia Theresa, bora
December 27, 1878. Mr. Conboy has been Assessor for four years.
JAMES COWI£, Caledonia P.O., was bom December 29, 1834. He is a son of
John and Isabella Cowie, who emigrated to Canada in 1833, and settled in Montreal,,
where they remained one year. In 1834 they removed to Hamilton, where they
remained until 1842, when they removed to this county. They were the parents of
the following children, viz.: sabella A., vrife of Robert Pooj^; John, who married
Eliza Green ; Elizabeth J., married Alexander Howden ; William, married Catherine^
Pile ; George, at home ; and James Cowie, who married, January 26, 1871, Rachel
Jones, second daughter of David Jones. They have no children, and live on his farm,,
situated on the east line of this county. Mr. Cowie's father, John Cowie, was a
soldier in the Rebellion of 1837-8, and for thirty years a Deacon in the Baptist Church.
He now lives with his son Jam<rs, at the advanced age of 83 years.
GEORGE CRANSTON, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was born in Roxburghshire, Scot-
land. He is a son of William and Jenet (Goldie) Cranston, natives of Scotland. Mr.
Cranston and family emigrated to America in 18*^0, locating in St. Lawrence County^
New York State; here he remained until 1843, at which time he came to Canada.
Mr. Cranston made Haldimand County his home until his death. He was married
twice, George, our subject, being a son by his first wife. George Cranston married
Mary Armstrong, a daughter of John Armstrong and Maiy^ret Marshall, who came-
from Roxburghshire, Scotland, to St. Lawrence County, N.T., in the year 1833, where
Mrs. Geon>e Cranston, their third daughter, was bom. The Armstrongs subsequently
came to Canada, and settled in Oneida Township, County of Haldimand, where the two-
families, the Granstons and Armstrongs, resided in the same locality. George CranstoD^
came to Brant County in 1864, settling where he now lives. His farm is pleasantly
located on the Brantford Road, with a residence built in modem style, showing taste-
and enterprise. Their children are William, Jane, Jenet, John (deceased), Margaret,
Robert J., Mary, Peter, Agnes, Elizabeth and George. Mr. and Mrs. Cranston's early
days were spent in the States. He is a Reformer in politics, and belongs to the Canad*.
Presbyterian Church.
JAMES CREIGHTON, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Ireland. His &iher,
William Creighton, was a native of Tyrone, Ireland, and came to Canada with all his
family, except James, in 1846. He settled in Onondaga, his children, viz., Jane, Ann^
Robert, Isabella, William (deceased), Margaret and Mary, nearly all living in Haldi-
mand County. James Creighton married, April 23, 1840, IsabeUa Campbell, daughter
of John Campbell, of Ireland. They came to America, landing in New York, and
afterwards settled in Onondaga, where they occupy a well regulated farm, and enjoy the
respect of a wide circle of acquaintances. They have no children. They are mem-
bers of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Creighton is a Conservative in politics.
ISAAC DAVIS, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom in 1824, in Brantford Townships
and is a son of David and Elizabeth (Thomas) Davis. David Duvis had four children^
viz., Mary, John, Peter and Isaac, our subject. He spent his boyhood days in this
county, receiving a common school education. In 1838 he visited England, looking up-
some blooded stock. He married, in 1861, Susanna England, daughter of James Eng-
land. They became the parents of five children, viz., S^rah A., Maggie, Elizabetli S.,.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 639
Perry and Olive Kate. Mr. Davis has given his children every advantage of educa-
tion, his eldest daughter taking honours at the Mohawk Institute. She now holds a
position among the teachers of that institution. Mr. Davis owns 200 acres of good land,,
is snrronnded by a bright family, and has all the comforts of a pleasant home.
JOSEPH DICKINSON, farmer, Newport P.O., was bom in Lincolnshire, England.
He came to New York State in 1830, and here remained until 1852. He married
Sarah Russell, who was bom in Sussex County, England, and came to the States with
her parents. They settled in Brant County in 1852, where they now reside, enjoying
the fruit of their early toils. They are the parents of sixteen children, viz., Mary J.,
bom Sept. U, 1834 ; Eliza, born Dec. 24, 1836 ; Robert D., bom July 9, 1838 ; Polly
M., born May 30, 1840; Harriet A., born November 24, 1842 ; John S., bom July
3, 1844 ; Leander, born March 28^ 1846 ; two died in infancy, Marven J., bom Dec.
22, 1848; Caroline, bom October 28, 1850; Sarah A., bom Sept. 3, 1852; Joseph,
bom 'Jan. 28, 1854 ; Francis, bom July 21, 1856 ; Peter A, bom Apnl 22, 1858 ; and
Creorge, bom August 19, 1861.
THOMAS H. DICKINSON, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in Onondaga, Feb.
24, 1835. He was a son of John and Elizabeth Dickinson, who came to this county at
an early period, and have done their share towards its development Mr. Dickinson
was a class-leader in the Methodist Church for thirty years. Ho now lives with his.
son, at an advanced age. His looks are no more lofty nor his step proud, but his frame
still bears the marks of a vigorous youth. The vigour of his intellect is now wasted
and his memory fast decaying, only showing him broken images of the glory that has
departed. His family consists of five children, viz., William, John, Thomas, George,
and Mary Ann. The sons are all at home looking after the interests of their aged
parents. Thomas Dickinson was married December 25, 1856, to Jane Kerrison.
They have no family, live upon a well improved farm, and are enjoying the froits of their
early labour. Gecige Dickinson is a younger son, who was bom January 23, 1837 ;
be lived in this county until he was twenty-one years old, then removed to Iowa, where
he remained one year ; from there to Colorado, and spent one year there ; from there
to Nevada, and afterwards to California, where he remained four years. From Cali-
fornia to Montana, by the way of Salt Lake ; he remained two years, and then went
back to Nevada. In 1874 he returned to the parental roof, where he now lives. He
married, January 21, 1874, and has a family of three ohildien.
WILLIAM DOUGHERTY, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bora in Ireland in 1832.
His father, James Dougherty, was bom in 1 798, and. came to Canada in 1833, with his
two eldest sons, John and William; they settled in York County. John, who now lives
in Haldimand County, was bom in 1829. His other children are, Isaiah, bom in 1838 —
has taught school for some years, and he has also followed the mercantile business ; he
now lives in Dacotah, United States — and Maria, born in 1841, now living in Huron
County. Mr. Dougherty came to the county when it was a mere wilderness, and did
much towards its improvement. He died in the year 1880. William, our subject^
was married, October 4, 1865, to Sarah C. Reeker, of the same township. They have
had three children, viz. : William, now at home ; Anna M. (deceased) ; and Mary A.
They are members of the East Ward Baptist Church. Mr. Dougherty owns 163
aci'es of valuable farming land, and is a Reformer in politico.
ALEXANDER DOUGLAS, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was born in Scotland in 1826.
His father, John Douglas, was a soldier in the War of 1812. He settled in Onondaga
Township in 1842, following his trade (carpentry) until his death, at the advanced
age of ninety years. Alexander came to Canada with his father, and manied, Decem-
ber 19, 1872, Miss Jones, of Welsh desc»>nt. Their children are Jane, Eliza, Ann,
and John, all living at home. Mr. Douglas is an Elder in the Presbyterian Church.
640 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
He owns 104 acres of valuable farming land, and at piesent is Reeve of the Township
of Onondaga.
JAMES RACEY, a native of England, came to Canada in 1803, and for a time
^as in the employ of Oiark and Street. In 1816 he lucated in Mount Pleasant, and
iiere he built a log-cabin, which was looked upon as a mansion at that time. A photo-
graph of this cabin may be seen at any time, grouped with the photographs of the
eminent clergymen of that day, at Mrs. Elliott's. Mr. Racey acted as Magistrate in
that section, and the early records which he left now show the marriages of some
of the old pioneers with the Indians. He was also Associate Judge in that day. He
was the father of eleven children.
EDWI^N" FAIR, farmer, Gains ville P.O., is a son of Alexander and Mary (Carr)
Eair. Alexander Fair came to this country from Ireland, with his parents, who
settled in Kingston, and, in 1838, in Onondaga. Mr. Fair served his time in the
Rebellion of 1837, under Capt. Wilson. He married, November 10th, 1839, Mary
Ann Carr, by whom he had seven children, five of whom are living, viz., William,
Peter, Hugh J., Mary A. and Edwin, who now has charge of the old homestead, and
looks after the interest of his mother and sister. He is a promising young farmer,
and highly respected by all. They are all members of the Methodist Church.
WILLIAM FINDLAY, farmer, Conboy ville P. C, is a son of John and Jane
(Foresythe) Findlay, natives of Scotland. They emigrated to Canada in 1831, and
settled in the Province of Quebec ; in 1837 he came to Hamilton, and from thence to
Onondaga in 1838. Mr. Findlay served in the Mackenzie Rebellion as Sergeant in
Capt. Usher's Company, Niagara Fencibles. He was also in Hamilton with Capt.
Tench. He was a mason by trade, and died in 1847, leaving seven children, four of
whom survive, viz., Isabelle, now Mrs. McLanc, of Toronto ; Janet, now Mrs. Lees, of
Bruce County, J. Miller, of Caledonia, and William Findlay, who married Deceml>er
2, 1851, Annie Youmie. They have a family of four children, one deceased; the
living are, George S., now in Dacotah ; John, at home; and Jamet. Mr. Findlay is a
plasterer by trade; he owns a nice farm situated on the Brantford and Caledonia Road.
Mr. Findlay has held the position of Councillor for three years, also Assessor.
CHARLES H. HAGER, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was bom in Trafalgar, Halton
County, January 30, 1833, and at the age of four years came with his father to
Onondaga Township, taking up land known as the Surrender Lands. Mr. Hager waa
the first settler in this locality, which was in 1837, in the midst of an Indian settle-
ment of the Onondaga tribe. The first birth was Mr. Hager's daughter, Meiinda
Hager, and the first marriage was that of Ariel Spiers and Mary Hager; the cere-
mony was performed by the Rev. Adam Elliott, the first Indian Missionary of the
settlement. Charles H. Hager was one of fourteen children, and married. May 6,
18j8, Eliza Hunter. They were the parents of three children, two of whom are liv-
ing, viz., Susan, bom April 12, 1861; and John, bom June 28, 1862. Mr. Hager
lost his wife, Eliza (Hunter) Hager, in 1866. He again married, October 22, 1871,
Ellen Rymal, who was born September 13, 1842 ; by this union were two children,
viz., Celista, bom July 2, 1874, and Charles H., bom May 16, 1881. Mr. Hager
is a Conservative in politics, and an attendant of the M. E. Church.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom April 4, 1819,
in Ireland ; he was the son of Alexander and Jane (Brown) Hamilton, natives of
Ireland. They emigrated to Canada in 1830, settling in Toronto, where Mr. Hamil-
ton died in 1854, his wife soon following. They had ten children, viz.: Martha, who
died near Toronto iu 1 870 ; Elizabeth, now a widow, living in Toronto ; Jane, who is
living with her daughter, Mrs. Chortton, near Cainsville ; Mary and Robert, who died
in Haldimand County ; Anna, now living in Peel County ; Margaret lives in Peel
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 641
County ; John lives in Haldimand County ; Sophia (single) lives in Toronto ; and
Alexander. He married, in 1841, Jane MpLochlon. They are the parents of five
children, three of them living, viz.: Alexander, who married Miss Ren wick, now lives
at Port Hope, where he is practising medicine ; Jane married George Deagle, in
Onondaga ; Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Squires, now a retired miller (Mr.
Squires has a business at Wiarton, and lives at Owen Sound). Mr. Hamilton owns
200 or more acres of land, which he cleared mostly himself ; he has a very comfortable
house, and is enjoying the savings of his early toil ; he had a limited education, the
schools of his day being rather rustic compared with those of to-day. There were no
black-boards, no desks, no furniture of any kind ; the seats consisted of slabs and fence-
rails, with wooden pins for legs. The balance of the furniture consisted of hickory
withes, used to encourage refractory pupils up the hill of science. Mr. Hamilton has
visited the old country several times since his removal to Canada.
JOHN HAMILTON, farmer, Onondaga P. 0., was born near Glasgow, Scotland,
July 26, 1832, and is a son of Robert and Margaret (Wilson) Hamilton, natives of
Scotland, where the latter died. The former, leaving his children in iheii native
country, came to America in 1843, and settled in New York State. He subsequently
sent for his children, and soon after their arrival he came to Canada and located in
Onondas^a Township near where his son now resides. He died October 19, 1878.
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and the father of two sons, William
and John. The subject of this sketch was raised and educated as a farmer, and has
followed that honoured avocation through the whole of his life. On March 11, 1863,
he married Janet, daughter of Alexander and Isabella (Morton) Hamilton, natives of
Scotland, who emigrated to America in 1838 and settled in New York, eleven years
later coming to Canada, where the father died. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have had
nine children, seven surviving, viz.: Robert, astudentof Ontario Agricultural College;
Agnes, Jane, John A., William J., Archibald W. and Janet M. Mr. Hamilton owns
a good productive farm of 112 acres, on which he resides, about seven miles north of
Brantford. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Reformer in politics ;
he is now occupying the office of Councillor.
JOHN M. HAMILTON, fanner, Onondaga P.O., was born July 5, 1 843,at Rochester,
N.Y. He was a son of Alexander and Isabella (Morton) Hamilton, natives of Scotland.
Mr. Hamilton died in 1878 ; his wife still lives. They emigi-ated from Scotland to
the States, and settled in Oneida County, New York State, where they, remained
seven years. From there they removed to Elochester, N.Y., for two years; then they
came to Canada and settled in Brant County, where he ended his days ; Robert now
occupies the homestead. John M. Hamilton was married in 1866 to Margaret, daughter
of James and Mary Hamilton ; she died in 1875, leaving three children, viz., Jane
Isabella, Nettie Brownlie, and Alexander Malcolm. Mr. Hamilton owns 90 acres of
good land, and is one of the thrifty farmers of Onondaga Township.
ROBERT HAMILTON, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was born December 22, 1838, in
the State of New York. He was the son of Alexander and Isabella (Morton) Hamilton,
nativei) of Scotland. They emigrated to Amenca, settling first in Hillsborough Town-
ship, Oneida County, Now York. Here they remained ten years, and then removed
to Rochester. After the expiration of eighteen months Mr. Hamilton settled in
Onondagi, where he died, leaving six children, viz. : William, who was drowned while
bathing ; Jenette, Alexander, John, James and Robert, the subject of this sketch. He
was married, September 17, 1866, to Mary Hamilton, danght'er of William Hamilton.
They have six children, viz., Alexander, William, Robert, John H., James M. and
Mabel M. Mr. Hamilton owns 90 acres of land, and is a successful and intelligent
farmer.
642 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
RICHARD HARRIS, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was born August 15, 1818, and is a
son of William and Alice (Rowe) Harris, natives of Ireland. He emigrated to Canada
in 1811, and to the place now occupied by his son, Robert Harria Mr. Harria
was one of the seventeen who received the first deed of the Indian lands. Richard
Harris came to Canada in the spring of 1840. His boyhood days were spent in Tus-
carora. He married November 6, 1848, Margaret Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler,
who was a son of Colonel Butler. The children by this marriage are as follows : Alice,
died in infancy ; William T., a physician, whose biography appears in this work ; John,
Richard, Robert and Mar^ret. Upon the death of Mrs. Harris in 1861, Mr. fianis
married Sarah Fallis. The children by this marriage are Noble J., Albert E., Theo-
dore F., Maria J., Mary W., Frederick C. and Isal^Ue J., all members oi the English
Church. Mr. Harris owns 200 acres of improved land, upon which he has good build-
ings. He is a Conservative, and has been Councillor for twenty years.
JOHN HARTLEY, farmer. Onondaga P.O., was born in England, January 13,
1818. He was a son of Richard and Jane Hartley, natives of England. They emi-
grated to Canada in 1841, and settled on a farm in Brantford, where they remained
until his death, which occurred in 1841. They were the parents of eight children, viz.,
James, Elizabeth (deceased), John, Hartley, Mary, Mrs. William Canon, Henry and
Joseph. Mr. John Hartley was brought up to farming, coming to this country when Uie
red man was as numerous as the white man is at the present time. In 1858, he married
Elizabeth Field. She died September 23, 1873, leaving four children, viz.: Alfred, bom
November 1843, married Ruth VanSickle; Mary J., bom Oct 24, 1852, married to
James Roloford ; Whitfield, bom 1853 ; and Wallace, born July 18, 1862. Mr.
Hartley is a Baptist. \
ISAAC HODGINS. farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom in Ireland, 1817. He is a son
of Isaac and Ann (White) Hodgins, natives of Ireland, where they both died. Their
family consisted of seven children, viz.: John, died 1866, in Toronto; William (deceased);
Mary, still in Ireland ; Sarah and Ann (deceased). Isaac Hodgins came to Canada in
1834 ; settled for one year in Toronto ; from there he went to Chicago ; while there he
engaged as Messenger on the harbour, and finally went to New Orleans. In 1837 he
went back to Chicago, where he remained one summer, and then returned to Toronto
about the time of the Rebellion, in which he was engaged 18 nHonths. In 1838 Mr.
Hodgins married Margaret ' Nelson, daughter of James Nelson, of Ireland. They
settled in this county in 1843, upon his present farm. Mr. Hodgins has spent most of
his life in stock-raising, making a specialty of fino horses, now owning the finest horse
in the county, known as '' Little Billy, *' his pedigree being Clear Grit on the sire side,
and old Royal George and Messenger on the dam side. He stands fifteen hands high,
and is a dapple bay ; Mr. Hodgins has lieen offered $5,000 for him. Mr. Hodgins'
farm consists of 111 acres, beautifully situated. He has been Commissioner, also
School Trustee ; has seven children, viz.. William, Ann, Isaac, Nelson, Emma» Minnie
and Sarah. Mr. Hodgins is a member of the Church of England.
JOHN B. HOPKINS, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Brant County, June
22, 1833, and is a son of Benjamin and Phoebe Hopkins. Mrs. Hopkins was born May
19, 1799, in Niagara Township, near Beaver Dam. Benjamin Hopkins was bom July
4, 1798, in Niagara Township, and took an active part in the War of 1812. His
widowed wife still lives in Norwich, Oxford County. They had nine children, four of
whom are living. John B., the youngest, married Mary J. Jacobs, and has one son,
Edmond, who shares the parental roof in Onondaga Township. Mr. Hopkins owns a
fine farm of 180 acres, situated in one of the most pleasant parts of the township.
ROBERT J. HOWDEN, farmer, Conboyville P.O., is a son of Thomas aud Jane
Howden, natives of Ireland. They einigmted to Canada in 1826, making Trafalgar
* BIOGRiLPfllCAL SKETCHES. 643
their liome until 1855, when they located on their present &rm. Mr. Howden is now
90 years of age. When he first came to this country it was generally a wilderness, the
few settlers living in log-cabins, surrounded by a small lot of cleared land. But by
industry he has acquired 200 acres of valuable farming land. His family consisted of
twelve children, eight of whom survive. Robert, the youngest of this family, has
charge of the farm, and looks after the interests of his aged parents.
ISAAC HOWELL, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom in Onondaga March 22, 1839,
and is a son of William and Eliza (Day) Howell, natives of Canada. The former wa»
bom in Wentworth County, and the latter in Brant County ; she still lives on the old
homestead with her son. Her family consists of six children, as follows : George W.^
bom in Oct., 1833, mairied Elizabeth Popplewell, and is now living in Oakland ; Jane
A., bom in 1835, married Simon Olmstead, and is now living in Townsend ; Alex-
ander, born in 1837, mamed, in 1862, Elizabeth Lincoln, who died in 1873, when he
married Alice Shuntleworth, in 1875 ; Isaac, the subject of this sketch, married, in 1875^
Mary Alice Holmes ; John W.. born in 1841, married Hester Shaver ; William, bom
in 1843, married, in 1876, Helen Sutton. Mr. Isaac Howell has three children, viz.,
Melvin, Harrold, and Edgar ; Mr. William Howell has three, viz., Isabella, Laurie, and
Edwin. These two families occupy the old homestead, and the heads are two very
successful and enterprising men. They have a first-class farm, furnished with good
and substantial buildings. Their aged mother makes her home with them.
WILLIAM HUNTER, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom^arch 2nd, 1826. He
was a son of Thomas Hunter, native of Ireland. They came to Canada at an early
day, having been nine weeks and three days upon the water. The boat which carried
them up the rapids of the St. Lawrence was drawn by French horses and oxen. If
a boat got to reeling any, they were obliged to cut the rope to keep the oxen from
being drawn into the river. When this was done, the boat would run back two or
three miles ; they were then obliged to reattach their oxen and proceed again. When
they reached the rapid caUed the Long Sault, twelve yoke of oxen were attached to
one of the main ropes, and two yoke of oxen on the line from the stem ; the boat
got the advantage of them, and they cut the main rope, thus saving the twelve yoke-
of oxen, but the two yoke were dragged into the rapids. After much excitement
they reached Hamilton by water, and from there to Brantford they travelled in an
oxen cart. Here Mr. Hunter died in March, 1879, at the age of 80 years. He was
a soldier in the Rebellion of 1837, holding the office of sergeant. He was a member
and class-leadbr of the Wesleyan Church. In his family of twelve children, William
was the second eldest. He married, in 1850, Harriet Smith, who was bom in New
York Stata Her father, Christopher S. Smith, taught the first school in this county
among the Indians. Otttimes he came face to face with the red men and their knives^
for some little punishment which had been inflicted upon their children. Mr. Hunter
has a family of nine children. His farm consists of 112 acres. He has been a Coun-
cillor for a term of nine years ; also Constable, and is highly respected by all.
JAMES JAMIESON, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom in Paris, Brant County,
Ontario ; his parents were James Jamieson, who was bom at Whiteman's Creek,.
Brant County, and Jemima damieson, his wife, bom at Cainsville, Brant County.
They belong to the Cayuga tribe or band. Their family consisted of six boys and
six girls. James Jamieson, Sr., was an Indian letter-carrier during the late war, in
which General Brock lost his life. He had no education, his children also being
deprived of it, as there were no schools in those days. He used to carry the mail free
between St. Catharines and Amherstburgh, usually on foot, horses being scarce at that
time. The subject of this sketch married Julia Ann Jamieson, who was bom in
Onondaga Township, Brant County. Mr. Jamieson often goes away visiting the
<J44 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Indians of the Indian Territx)ry and Western States, teaching them how to plough,
split rails and make chairs, tables and other useful articles. This he does gratis,
receiving no compensation whatever. He has many fossils, stones and other articles
used by the old Indians of past days. He owns a farm of valuable land, which he
cultivates in a successful manner. He had but little advantage of education, but he
has taken pains to educate his children to the best advantage ; so much so, that they
have forgotten their own language, and have to be addressed by their parents in
English, which is a great disadvantage, as the parents are not thorough-speaking
English. The family consists of the following children : benjamin, ^lark, Maggie,
lienny (deceased), Sarah, Mary, Julia Ann, James, Robert, Elizabeth, Clara Lady
Dufferin, Matthew and Monica.
JOHN LYONS, farmer, Onondaga P.O., is a son of David and Mary (Carlton)
Lyons, who lived and died in Ireland. Their feunily consists of thirteen children, four
of whom came to America. John settled near Toronto, and remained there fifteen
years. In 1835 he married Matilda, daughter of Alexander Dunn, both natives of
Ireland. Mr. Lyons was a soldier during the Rebellion, taking an active part in the
battle of GalloVs Hill. He has two flint-lock pistols and a sword he used in that
war. He was twice married ; by his first wife he had six children — David, Alex-
ander, Martha, Mary, and two deceased. His second wife was Miss McLaughlan, of
Scotland. Mr. Lyons is a spiritualist.
OS BERT £. McIN7;yR£, farmer, Onondaga P.O., is a son of Daniel Mclntyre,
on the Mt. Pleasant Road, whose histoiy may be found in this work. He married,
Nov. 12, 1879, Augusta Chittenden, of Brantford. They are the parents of two chil-
dren, viz., Alva, born Sept. 4, 1880, and Laura M., born Aug. 5, 1882. They were
married by W. H. Porter, of Brantford. His farm is beautifully situated on Grand
River. Mr. Mclntyre is a progressive young farmer, and is esteemed by all who
know bim.
JAMES McLEOD, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Brant County, March 22,
1858. He was a son of Duncan and Mary McLeod. Mr. McLeod settled in Onon-
daga in 1837, living on the farm now owned by his son James until death, which took
place in 1880. He was the father of three children, viz., James, George H., bom Aug.
19, 1861, now telegraph operator in Minnesota, and Joseph A., who died in infancy.
Mrs. McLeod's father was a native of England, and afterwards a resident of Brant
County. Mrs. McLeod and son are members of the Methodist Church.
ROBERT MULLIGAN, farmer, Conboyville P.O., was born in Ireland, August 4,
1826. His father, William Mulligan, emigrated to Canada in 1833, and settled in
Onondaga Township in 1842, where he remained until his death. His wife, Mary
^Jarvis) Mu-ligan, still survives, being at this writing 86 years of age. Tiiis family
consisted of eight children, viz., Elizabeth, William, Mary Ann, Richard, Catherine M.
James and Robert, who came to Canada with his father in 1833. He married Eliza-
beth Atkinson. They are the parents of ten children, one deceased, viz., William and
James, Robert, who married Eliza James, Mary J., Margaret, Thomas, Matilda,
Lauretta and 'Wellington, all at home. Mr. Mulligan lost his first wife, November 29,
1876. He again married January 29, 1881, Mrs. Martha (Olmstead) Evans. Mr.
Mulligan owns 200 acres of improved land, and has been Trustee in that district for
many years.
MURDOCK MUNROE, farmer, Carluke P.O., was bom in Scotland, Aug. 1, 1829.
He was a son of John and Margaret (McKenzie) Munioe, natives of Scotland. John
Mpnroe was bom December 20, 1789, and died April 29, 1872 ; Mrs. Munroe died in
1840. They were the parents of nine children, viz., four died in Scotland ; John died
1846; Catherine, now widow of Daniel Forbes, of Haldimand County; Daniel (deceased) ;
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 645
Alexander, horn in 1833, died at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1863; and Murdock, sub-
ject of this sketch. The latter married, January 8, 1857, Ann Chapman, who was born
October 6, 1833. By this union twelve children were horn, five of whom are livings
viz., William, bom March 20, 1859, living at home; John, bom April 3, 1861 (single),
now a miller in Hnron County; Alexander, bom March 17, 1863, living at Caledonia,
a miller by trade ; Jessie, bom March 3, 1865, living at home ; and George, botn Sept.
18, 1871, also living at home. Mr. Munroe has lived on his present farm since 1843.
He came with his father to the settlement when it was a wildemess of pine and hard-
wood timbers; by hard labour they brought it to its present state of cultivation. Mr.
Munioe'sfarm consists of 100 acres, well stocked with fine sheep and cattle. He and
family are Presbyterians in religion, and he is a Reformer in politics.
WILFRED NICHOLS, farmer, Cainsville P.O., was bom in Canada, May 29,
1861, and is a son of Henry and Jane (Whitehead) Nichols, both natives of England.
Francis Nichols, grandfather of Wilfred, was a cabinet-maker. He came to Canada
and settled in Quebec, where he followed his trade. His family consisted of six
children, Henry, Wilfred's father, being the fifth. He was bom in England, and came
to Canada with his father, and first settled at Quebec and then Toronto. In 1848, he
married Jane Whitehead. They became the parents of nine children, viz., Annie,
bom October 21, 1849, now the wife of Levi Lott; Alfred, bom January 31, 1851,
now married, and living near St. Thomas ; Fanny, died in infancy;- Henry, bom May
27, 1859, now cattle^lealer in the States; Eliza, bom May 27, 1857, now wife of
Rev. H. J. Fair; Wilfred, now in charge of the farm ; Emma, bom February 27, 1863,
living at home ; Jane, bom January 27, 1867, now at home; and Fannie, bom June
25, 1869, died, 1881. Mrs. Nichols has taken pains to give her family good advan-
tages of education, being now -rewarded by their support. They are members of the
English Church.
ROBERT POGE, former, Conboyville P. O., was bom in Ireland in 1823. He
WEB a son of John and Lima (Maxwell) Poge, natives of Ireland, who came to
Canada in 1828, and settled in the South Gore, and in 1837 they came to Seneca
Township. Here Mr. Poge died in 1831, from injuries received by the falling of a tree.
His wife soon followed, leaving six children, viz., Nancy Jane, Anna, John, Robert,
William and James. Robert, our subject, married, in 1835, Isabelle Cowie, by whom
he had twelve children, ten of whom are living, viz., William C. and James, in Kent
County; Anna, Isabelle, Samuel, Robert, George, John, Elizabeth and Alexander, at
home; all Baptists in religion and Reformers in politics. Mr. Poge has given his
children a good education, and is much respected in his community.
JAMES SIMPSON, Onondaga P.O., was bom in England, and was a son of
James and Judith (Benham) Simpson, natives of England. Their family consisted of
seven children, viz. : John, still living in England ; William, in Hal ton, England ;
Thomas, now in Port Albert ; Samuel (deceased) ; George, living in Brantford ; and
Eliza (deceased); our subject being the seventh. He emigrated to America, landed in
New York State, and by some misunderstanding took a ship to New Orleans. From
there he was obliged to return hy stage. He stopped at Cleveland until navigation
opened, when he crossed the Lake to Port Burwell, and from there through St. Thomas
to London* on foot. Securing three horses at London, they came to Brantford, landing
at a hotel known as Robinson Hall, then kept by Fred. Yanderlip, there being, wi^
the exception of log-cabins, but few houses at Brantford at that time. Mr. Simpson
the next day engaged a month's board of Mrs. Joseph Squires, after which he bought
a supposed Indian claim of fifty acres, which proved of no value. He then took a
pre-emption right of land, known as the Indian Surrender Lands, where he still livesat
an advanced age. He was a very hard-working man, as his good deeds go to show.
/
646 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
wife was Eliza Logoce, daughter of Michael Logoce, a native of France, who acted as
messenger in the War of 1812. They became the parents of seven children, riz. :
Oeorge, born May 11, 1846, married Mary Jane Elliott ; Selena, bom March 16,
1840, married Wm. Wood; James, bom December 10, 1849, married Julia Ann
Oardner ; Mary J., bom January 30, 1852. now at home caring for her aged father ;
Samuel, bom June 5, 1855, at home looking after the interests of the farm ; Michael,
bom November 18, 1857, at home; Eliza, bom 1860, now Mrs. Wood. Mr. Simpson
lost his wife in 1862. He attends the M. E. Church, and is a Conservative in politics.
WILLIAM SIMPSON, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom April 29, 1849, and is a
«on of Samuel and Caroline (Mitchell) Simpson. Samuel Simpson was born in the
County of Hampshire, England. He came to Canada in 1841, and settled in Onon-
•daga. In 1842 he married, at Hamilton, Caroline Mitchell, daughter of David Mit-
chell, a native of Hampshire County, England. Mr. Mitchell came to Canada in
1836, and settled in Newport, then called Birch Landing. In this family of ten chil-
dren, Mrs. Simpson was the second child. Mr. Simpson died April 5, 1880. He
was a man of very genial disposition and faithful in his duties as a Christian, serving
as a Deacon in the Baptist Church, of which he was a member for a great many years.
Their family consisted of seven children, of whom six are living, viz. : Mary A., now
Mrs. Brough ton,' living at Newport; Thomas F., married Frances Misnor, now carry-
ing on a blacksmith shop in Onondaga Village ; Sarah, living at home ; Elizabeth C.,
who died July 20, 1874 ; Samuel, blacksmith with his brother ; Albert £., who resides
•on the farm with his mother ; and William, the subject of this sketch. He married,
April 25, 1876, Mary, daughter of James H. Osborne, M.D., County of Norfolk, Ontario.
Their children are : Meta Maud, bom July 16, 1877 ; Judson H, bom January 7,
1879; Albert K, bom January 20, 1880; Newton 0., born March 3, 1881; and
William Ward, bom July 2, 1882. Mr. Simpson is a promising young farmer, resid-
ing on the homestead, and highly respected by alL
JOHN STEWART, farmer, Carluke P. O., was bom in Scotland, May, 1824. He
was a son of Robert Stewart and Margaret (Carrick) Stewart. He came to Canada in
1849, stopped for a short period at Hamilton and other places, and in 1854 he
bought a saw mill in Ancaster Township. John Stewart is a millwiight by trade, and
in 1861 he built a grist mill in addition to the saw mill. Mr. Stewart bought the farm
in 1870 which belonged to the late Thomas Brown, which he has conducted since very
successfully. In 1857 he married Jessie Harvey, by whom he had twelve children,
viz., Eobert, Jessie, John, Margaret, Anna, Ellen, Walter, Mary, Allison, Isabella,
Elizabeth and BacheL Mr. Stewart owns a first-class form, with good buildings.
Thev are Presbyterians in religion, and he is a Keformer in politics.
WILLIAM TAWS, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bom Febmary 22, 1843, at Cains-
ville, Brant County. He was a son of Andrew and Isabella (Walker) Taws, natives of
Scotland. Andrew Taws died shortly after he came to Canada, William being but
two years old at the time, and when nineteen his mother died. He lived in the f^miily
of Mr. Legacy until he attained the age of 22 years. He then lived eleven years
with Mr. Fiyers — two years before his marriage, and nine after. Since the death of
Mr. Fiyers, Mr. Taws has lived upon the property owned by Mr. Fiyers, a part being
willed to him, and the rest he bought. He married Oct. 7, 1878, Emma Fiyera who
was bom September 18, 1844. This union has been blessed with five children. Mr.
Taws owns 200 acres of land, 1 70 of which are under cultivation. He keeps good
«tock, and is a Methodist in belief.
JOHN UEIE, farmer, Carluke, was born at Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1824. He is a
4son of William and Barbara (Lochead) Urie, natives of Scotland, who emigrated to
America in 1830, and located in New Brunswick, where they remained ten years, in
BIOOBAPHICAL SKETCHES. 647
1839 they camo to this county, and settled in Onondaga Township, and here Mr.
Urie died in 1877 ; his wife still survives, at the advanced age of 86 years. In his
family of seven children, John, the third, was married in 1852 to Muts Ellen Riach,
daughter of George Riach. They have five children, viz., William, George, John M.,
Alexander and Ellen, all well educated. Mr. Urie has accumulated a nice estate, con-
sisting of 140 acres, situated thirteen miles from Htemilton and eighteen from
Bractford. He is Justice of the Peace, and was Councillor for two years. He is a
Reformer in politics.
GEORGE VANSICKLE, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was horn in Ancaster Township
on May 30, 1834, and is a son of Abram I. and Annie (Miller) YanSickle, natives of
the State of New Jei*sey. Mr. YanSickle was but two years of age when he came to
Canada. He settled in Ancaster Township, where he remained until his death. His
wife still resides there, and is the mother of fourteen children, George being the sixth.
He married Jan«t Wood, and now has a family of six childran, viz., Alice, Mary, Annie,
Abram W., William (deceased), and Emily; mosc of them are members of the Baptist
Ohurch. Mr. YanSickle owns 220 acres of good land, pleasantly situated on Grand
River.
ELIJAH WALKER, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was born m March, 1838, and is a
«on of James and Jane (Wills) Walker, natives of Ireland, who emigrated to Canada
in 1832, settling first in Brockville, N. Y., then in St. Catharines, and finally in
Onondaga Township. Mr. Walker was a member of the English Church, and a soldier
in the Rebellion of 1837. His family consisted of eight children, five of whom are
living, viz., John, who married Rebecca Stubs, now living in Lambton County ; Robert,
whose biography appears in this work ; and Elijah, our subject, who married, in 1868,
Catherine, daughter of James Ferris ; she died Oct. 29, 1875, leaving five children, viz.,
Sarah J., Ida £., James E., Susan E., and Catharine A. Mr. Walker married April
25, 1879, for a second wife, Ellen, daughter of Samuel Johnson ; she came to Canada
in 1860 from Ireland. There were no children by this union. Mr. Walker is taking
pains to give his children by his first wife a good education. He has been Church
Warden for a number of years, and owns 171 acres of well improved land, and is a
Conservative in politics. He is also a successful exhibitor at the Provincial and other
Agricultural exhibitions.
ROBERT WALKER, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., was born January 31, 1830. He
is a son of James and Jane (WiUs) Walker, and was married, April 18, 1857, to
Matilda Atkinson, daughter of Thomas Atkinson, a native of Ireland. Their union
-was blessed with seven children, viz., Rebecca, now the wife of Thomas Myeracaugh, of
this township ; Thomas, Emma, Eleanor Etta, Robert, Laura May, and John ; all mem-
bers of the English Church. Mr. Walker^s father, James Walker, took an active part
in the Mackenzie Rebellion. Mr. Walker owns a good farm, situated on the Brantford
and Caledonia Road. He is a Conservative in politics.
WILLIAM WOOD, farmer, Onondaga P.O., was bonr in Berwickshire, Scotland.
He was the son of Robert and Janet (Dean) Wood. His father was a land steward,
ivhose family consisted of nine children. Andrew, who emigrate to Canada, landed
in Hamilton. He afterwards settled in the Township of Turnberry, County of Huron,
where he purchased 1 30 acres of land, and died in 1 88 1 . Annie, David, Hannah and Mary,
^1 died in their native land ; Janet, Robert and Catherine are still living in Scotland.
William, the subject of our sketch, married in] Scotland, in 1836, Mary Gill, daughter of
James OilL Mr. Wood came to Canada in 1852 ; landed in Hamilton, from thence to
Jerseyville, in the Township of Ancaster, County of Wentworth, where he lived four
years ; he then bought 1 70 acres in the Townships of Onondaga and Brantford. Mrs.
Wood died on the 7th Febniaiy, in the year 1868, leaving six children living, viz..
648 HISTOKY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Janet, who married George VanSickle ; Hannah married flarvey H. VanSickle, pro-
prietor of the Stai* Washing-Powder Manufactory ; Mary, married WiUiam Thompson
(deceased) ; William, married Selina, eldest daughter of James Simpson ; Robert,
married Eliza Simpson ; and Elizabeth, the youngost in the family. William and
Robert now have charge of the farm, and look after the affairs of their aged father.
They are all members of the Baptist Church.
SOUTH DUMFRIES TOWNSHIP.
WILLIAM E. ADAMS, resident of Paris, and a member of the firm of Adams,
Hackland A: Co , of the Grand River Knitting Mills, Paris, was bom on Janoaiy 8,
1828, in England, being a son of Charles and Amelia Adams, also natives of England.
They emigrated to the United States in 1832, and on the passage out Mrs. Adams and
the eldest daughter were drowned. Mr. Adams afterwards became united in marriage
to Elizabeth Collins, of Providence, R. L, where they remained until the year
1865, when they came to reside in Ancaster, Ont., which they did until his death,
which occurred in 1870. His widow is still living, and resides at Ancaster, Ontario.
William E., the subject of this sketch, settled in Paris in 1868, and was married, Oct
11, 1849, to Marion L. Hanscome at Portsmouth, N. H. This lady ia a daughter of
Oliver and Marion Hanscome, and was bom in 1830. Of this union there were nine
children, of whom six are now living, viz., Charles Edwin (junior member of the firm
of A. H. & Co.), Laura, Lillie, William H., John W., and Frank. The names of
deceased are George A., drowned Dec. 11, 1869, at the age of eight years, by an
accident at the knitting factory, Paris ; Wallace B., aged four ; and Frank, who died
in infancy. Mr. A. was Town Councillor in 1878, and is a member of the Masonic
Order as well as the Sons of Temperance. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are members of the
Canada Methodist Church, and Mr. Adams himself has been a very successful man
since entering the business arena.
JACOB H. AHRENS, proprietor of the Paris Potteries, is a native of Germany,
where he was bom on 5th Sept, 1828, his parents, J. H. and Lena (Cook) Ahrens,
being also natives of Germany, and both bom about the year 1802. They were married
in 1826, the former (who was a builder by trade), dying in 1836. The latter emigrated
to Canada, and is still living. Her second husband was Henry Doebler, who died about
the year 1878. Our subject himself was married on 21st November, 1865, to Mary A.
Huberd, bom in Wales in 1841, and a member of the Church of England, her husband
embracing the New Jerusalem persuasion. To bless this union there were six children,
four of whom survive, viz., Caroline, Nelson, Sarah and Lena, all at home at present,
and going to school. While in Germany, Mr. Ahrens learnt the pottery trade as well
as something of the art of war, for in 1849 he was drafted into the army, and served
three years during the war with Denmark on the Schleswig-Holstein question. In
1852 he sailed for Canada, making Berlin, Waterloo County, his destination, whence
he subsequently moved to Brant County, and engaged in the pottery manufkcture in
1859. By industry he made money, but in 1869, the unfortunate breaking away of
the dam at Paris caused a loss to him of $2,558. Mr. A. has filled the office of Town
Councillor for five years.
ROBERT AITKEN, farmer, Glenmorris P.O., was one of the first of the army of
pioneers, and settled in Dumfries Township. He was bom in Roxburghshire, Scot-
landy and was the son of Geoige and Esther Aitken, who both died in Scotland at an
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHZa 649
advanced age. Robert Aitken was married on June 7th, 1827, to Elizabeth Little^
daughter of Andrew and Agnes Little, Eoxburghshire, Scotland. She was boru
January 30th, 1805, and after an active life, passed away on the 4th of March, 1879.
Mr. Aitken is a member of the Presbyterian Church. The first land he bought is the
farm on which he is now located, a well improved farm of 108 acres. He is the father
of ten children, eight of whom are still living ; their hames, according to seniority, ar&
Cecilia, Agnes, Esther, Janet, Miua, John, Mary, George and Jane. Esther was mamed^
28th October, 1853, to John Miller ; Mina was married 26th November, 1857, to
William Eichardson, and is now living in Campbell Township, Ionia Co., Michigan.
The great bulk of the land in the immediate vicinity of where Mr. Aitken 's farm now
is, prior to his settling here, was owned by one Mr. Wm. Dickson, of Gait.
A. A. ALLWORTH, editor of the Brant Revieto, Paris, is a twin son of Rev. W.
H. All worth, who was for seventeen years pastor of the Congregational Churchy
Paris. The AUwor^Ji family came from Wiltshire, England, in 1830, and settled
on a farm at Frome, near St Thomas, Ont. About nine years afterwards the eldest
son returned to England for a year, when he recrossed the ocean and became a school
teacher at a place called Southwold, County of Elgin. Subsequently he attended the-
Congregational College, Toronto, as a student for the ministry. The first scene of hi&
labours as a pastor was Stratford, and afterwards he devoted nine months of his clerical
duties in Burford, Oakland and Scotland Villages. In the latter place he was succeeded
by Rev. W. Hay, the present pastor. In October, 1865, Rev. W. All worth waa
appointed to the Congregational Church at Paris, and between that time and the
latter part of September, 1882, the congregation were enabled to erect the present
handsome church and manse, and made great progress, numerically and otherwise.
NELSON W. AMES, fanner, Township of South Dumfries, is. a native of Blen-
heim Township, Ont, where he was bom November 12, 1814, and is the son of
Brockby and Mary Ames, who were bom in the United States. From there they
emigrated, in 1804, to Canada, and settled for about eight years in Waterloo, Ont.^
when they moved to Blenheim Township, seventh concession. The father was bom
in 1773, died in 1819 ; and the mother was bom in 1771, died in 1827. After the
death of her first husband she was united in marriage with Peter Beamer, who sur-
vived her. She and her first husband remained in Blenheim Township untilcthe
spring of 1819, when they moved into South Dumfries Township, to the hxm owned
by Leonard Sovereign. Mr. Brockby Ames was a farmer all his days, with the excep-
tion of the period during which he was engaged in fighting his country's battles. He
took part in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, the most stubborn fight of the War of 1812-
1815, and received a wound that ultimately caused his death. He was also present
at the engagement of Queenston Heights, where Oeneral Brock was killed, October 13^
1812. ^'elson W. Ames, the subject of our biographical sketch, married, October 16»
1838, Rath Muma, who was born in East Dumfries Township, November 4, 1821.
She is a daughter of Christian and Ann Muma. Her father was a native of Pennsyl-
vania, and her mother of New Jei*8ey. Mr. and Mrs. Ames are members of the
Methodist Church, and are the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living,.
viz., William N., Ruth J., James A., Alexander T., Emma A., Mary L. and Maggie.
The deceased are William N. and Charlotte. Mr. Ames has filled the office of School
Trustee, and has met with marked success in his farming operations. From 100
aeres of land, on which he first started, he has now 530 acres of well cultivated land,
with comfortable dwelling houses and substantial outbuildings.
DANIEL ANDERSON, deceased, was a native of Monroe County, State of New
York, where he was bom 2nd April, 1805. His parents, Daniel and Catharine*
Anderson, came into Canada in 1825, and spent the remainder of their days there..
39
650 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
The former, who had followed the pursuits of farming during his life, died in 1857,
and the latter in 1858. Daniel, the subject of our sketch, was married 6th. March,
1834, to Christina McPherson, a native of Grenessee County, New York State, having
been bom there 22nd July, 1811. Mr. Anderson died 14th June, 1882, a member of
the Dumfries Street Church, Paris, and beloved and respected by all who knew him.
He filled for two terms the office of County Warden, and was Township Reeve for
eighteen years and Deputy Reeve two years, before the township was divided. As an
acknowledgment of their appreciation of his long services as Reeve and Deputy
Reeve, the people of the Township of South Dumfries presented Mr. Anderson, in
Feb., 1870, with a handsome gold watch and chain. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson had a
family of three, two surviving — John and Christina Ajin. The late Mr. Ajuderson
had a good early educational trdiuing, and built himself up by his industry a fair
competence, and left, at his death, a comfortable home for his widow and family.
THOMAS J. ANDERSON, farmer,Township of South Dumfries, is a native of Dam-
friesshire, Scotland, where he was bom Feb. 7, 1827. His parents, James and Jane
Anderson, were bom in Scotland, the father dying there about the year 1830, and the
mother dying in England about the year 1865 ; the former had been a fiirmer during
his lifetime. Thomas J. Anderson emigrated in 1844, and settled in New Brunswick
for a period of five years, when he moved to Perth County, Ontario. Here he remained
four years, and, still working eastward, found himself next in Blenheim Township,
County of Oxford, where he was settled for eighteen years. Finally he removed to
the farm in Brant County, where be and his family now reside. He was married,
Jan. 24, 1851, to Jane Kyle, born also in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Jan. 6, 1829 ;
Hhe emigrated to Canada with her mother in 1844. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are
members of the Presbyterian Church, and have had a family of nine children, seven of
whom survive, viz., James, Margaret, Janet, John K., Elizabeth, William and Jeanie.
Christina was bom March 10, 1866, died Jan. 21, 1876 ; Thomas was bom March
19, 1868, died Jan. 19, 1876. Mr. Anderson has been a very successful farmer all
along. He has a fine farm of 150 acres, well cultivated and highly improved land.
CHARLES ARNOLD (deceased). The parents of the subject of our sketch, who
were married about the year 1814, emigrated in 1883 from England to Canada, and
settled in Paris, where they resided up to the day of their death. They brought to
Canada with them a family consisting of three sons and two daughters, of whom only
John is now living. The late Charles Arnold was born in Bedfordshire, England, 17th
December, 1818, and married, 13th February, 1844, Agnes Taylor, who was bom in
the neighbourhood of Belleville, Ont., 1st February, 1819, and died, 5th May, 1854, a
<levoted member of the Baptist Church. By this union there were four children :
Amelia, born Feb. 25, 1846, and married to Charles Ciarkson, B.A., Head Master of
the Provincial Model School, Toronto; George, bom Oct. 18, 1848 ; Charles, born O.t.
22, 1850, died May 4, 1877; and Susan A., bom April 12, 1854, died Sept 12, 1854.
Mr. Arnold's second wife, whom he married Jan. 17, 1855, was Margaret Shackleton,
H member of the Congregational Church, and daughter of William and Elizabeth
Shackleton, natives of New Jersey, but who emigrated to Canada in 1795, and took
up their abode in Jersey ville, Ancaster, Ont The children by this marriage are Ella
A., born May 31, 1857, married to Edward Moyle, of St Paul's, Minnesota; and Ida
K, born Sept. 17, 1861, married to W. B. Nesbitt, of Bloomington, Illinois. Mr.
Arnold, who was proprietor of the Paris Nurseries, which he established in 1852, was
]n-obably the oldest horticulturist in the Province, and was widely known all over the
American continent as an enthusiastic and intelligent nurseryman. He had been
Director of the Fruit Growers' Association ever since its formation, and was originator
of several varieties of grapes, and his hybrid wheat has attracted great attention. In
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 651
1872 he gained the gold modal at the Hamilton Ontario Exposition for a new and
liaidy variety of white wheat ; in 1876 he obtained the Philadelphia Centennial medal
ior a very superior show of fruits, &c.; and from the seed of the * 'American Wonder"
pea, that he sold to Bliss & Sons, New York, he realized the handsome sum of over
42,000. Mr. Arnold had been fifteen years in the Town Council of Paris, apd was also
Deputy Reeve for some time. He died on Sunday, April 15, 1883, deeply regretted
by a large circle of friends and acquaintances throughout the country.
JOHN ARNOLD, Paris, was born on July 8th, 1817, in England, and is a son of
Isaac and Amelia (Cook) Arnold, both natives of England, the latter being bom on
Nov. 19, 1789. Being married in England, they emigrated to Canada in 1833, and
settled in Paris, where they resided until the day of their death. Mr. Arnold, Sr., who
was a gunsmith by trade, died in 1869, and Mrs. Arnold on May 3, 1841. Mr. John
Arnold was married on Sept. 24, 1848, to Deborah Ward. This lady was born in
Charlotte ville Township, Norfolk County, on May 27, 1827. Her parents, John and
Eliza Ward, were both natives ot the United States, and are both gathered to their
rest. Mr. and Mrs. John Arnold are membei-s of the Baptist Church, of which Mr.
A. is also Trustee and Deacon, and he has, as well, represented his constituents in the
Council for twelve years, and for two years acted as Deputy Reeve. Diligence and
industry have returned him a good competency, as he owns the property on which he
resides, also a fine fruit garden about half a mile from the Town of Paris.
THOMAS ATMORE, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, is a native of England,
where he was bom June 9, 1816. His parents, Thomas and Ann Atmore, remained
in England all their lives, the father dying there in 1830, and the mother in 1874.
Thomas came to Canada in 1835, first settling in the Village of St George, Ontario,
where he worked by the month for nearly 14 years. When he reached St. George, he
had but fifty cents to start on. His first purchase was 100 acres of land in the Town-
ahip of Blenheim, which he afterwards sold, and purchased a farm in S. Dumfries Town-
ship. He married July 18, 1850, Melinda Grifiith, daughter of Eleazer and Sarah
Griffith, and who was born March 28th, 1819 ; she died January 20, 1883. Mr. and
Mrs. Atmore were members of the Baptist Church, and had a family of six children, of
whom three are living, viz., Mary Ann, Thomas Sheldon, and Harriett M. The deceased
are : John W., born August 24, 1853, died Nov. 7, 1854 ; Sarah M., born Sept. 18,
1855, died January 29, 1856 ; and Sarah M., born March 7, 1857, died May 25, 1868.
It will l.ie noticed that two of the deceased children bear the same name. Mr. Atmore
has, by industry and care, met with prosperity in his farming operations, as he com-
menced on nothing, and now owns 100 acres of laud, a fine brick^iiouse and substantial
outbuildings, on the farm where he and his family reside.
CHRISTOPHER BARKER, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was born in
Paris, Ontario, in 1836, January 20, and is the son of John and Mary Barker, natives
of Eiigland, and who emigrated to Canada in 1835, settling in Paris. The father was
bom in 1805, the mother in 1801, and both departed this life in 1871. They were
married in England, and were in comparatively poor circumstances when they engaged
in farming in the County of Brant. Christopher Barker, our subject, was married
Sept. 15, 1864, in the City of Toronto, to Lydia Elizabeth, third daughter of James
and Sophia Pitt, natives of Herefordshire, England. They emigrated to Canada in
1851, and are both deceased, the father dying in 1862, and the mother in 1863. Mr.
Pitt was a merchant in England, and subsequently in Toronto. Lydia Elizabeth (Mrs.
Christopher Barker) was born in Hereford, March 12, 1839. She and her husband
both attend the Canada Methodist Church, and are members of said Church ; they have
a family of four children — Mary Sophia (now attending the Grammar School, Paris),
John Pitt, Matilda L. and Florence L. E. Mr. Barker has been a Director, First Vice-
/
652 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
President two years, and following two years President, of the North Biant Agricul-
tural Society, and now is a Director of said society, and has filled the office of School
Trustee for nine years. He resides with his family on the old homestead farm, which
he inherited. It consists of 200 acres of very fine land, on Lots 34 and 35, first conces-
sion, near Paris, in the Township of S. Dumfries. Mr. Barker received the silver medal
(second prize) for best managed farm in the year 1880 — this medal was given bj the
Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario — when ten counties were competing for
the two prizes. He also received the first prize for best managed farm in the North
Riding of Brant ; this is a bronze medal. Mr. and Mrs. Barker are much beloved and
respected by all who know them, and are useful members of the community in which
they live.
DANIEL BARKER, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, is a native of Eng-
land, where he was bom 8th April, 1827. His parents, John and Mary Barker, were
also English, and emivirated to Canada, settling in Paris, Ont. Daniel Barker, our
subject, married, 26th December, 1850, Louisa Havill, who was bom in England, 8th
August, 1842, and is a daughter of James and Mary Havill. They emigrated from the
land of their birth (England) to Canada, settling in Paris, Ont., where the mother
died, 5th January, 1880 ; Mr. Havill is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Barker are mem-
bers of the Canada Methodist Church, and have had a family of five children, four of
whom survive, viz.: James A., married to Sarah £. Sowden, daughter of the late Dr.
Sowden ; Robert, married to Anna Haackie, daughter of Arthur Haackie ; Mary £.,
wife of Thomas Midgly ; and Willie I). John was bom 5th September, 1851 ; died
loth September, 1852. Mr. Barker has followed farming pursuits from boyhood,
and has met with success. He has resided on his present farm ever since he b^jan
for himself, which was in 1852 ; he is owner of 148 acres highly cultivated land, and
at one time possessed nearly 300 acres, but of this he gave one of his sons 130 acres^
and to another $2,000 to aid him in commencing mercantile businesa.
BENJAMIN BELL, of the firm of B. Bell & Son, manufacturers of agricultural
implements, St George, came from the Township of G-rimsby, Ont, where he was bora
13th September, 1816. His parents were Canadians by birth, and also, to the best
of our knowledge, lived and died in Grimsby Township, Mr. Bell engaging in the occupa-
tion of farming all his life. Benjamin Bell, the subject of this sketch, and who is a
thorough representative man, moved to St George in 1838, and carried on the busi-
ness of builder up to 1857, in which year, on February 17, he entered into a partner-
ship with John Shupe for the manufacturing of agricultural implemdnts, under the
name and style of Shupe & BelL This lasted only till August of the same year. In
October of that year the firm of Bell & Lawrason came into existence for the manu-
facture of the same class of goods. This partnership continued for five years, and
from 1862 till October, 1870, Mr. Bell carried on the business alone. It was then
that the present firm of B. Bell <k Sou first appeared, as manufacturers of agricultural
implements. Mr. Bell married, on 8th June, 1837, Maria Smith, a native of Norfolk
Coimty, Ont, having been bom there 18th April, 1820 ; she was a daughter of
Barber Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Bell, who are both members of the Baptist Church,
have had a family of nine children, seven of whom survive, viz., Charles F., George
W., Susan M., Ellen A., Cyrus N., Martha J. and Carrie E. The deceased children
are Mary Jane, bom 16th August, 1838, died May 10th, 1853; and Emily, born 9th
October, 1852, died November 10, 1852. Mr. Bell is a Justice of the Peace, and has
been Treasurer and Clerk of the Baptist Church for several years, and both he and his
son have met with the utmost success in their business career.
N. P. BENNING, cigar and tobacco manufacturer, Paris, was bom in Missouri,
25th November, 1831, and is a son of John and Jane Benning, natives of Virginia,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 653
the former born there in 1779, and the latter in 1801. They were married in Virginia
in 1819, and moved into Kentucky, residing there until 1830, when they again
migrated to Missouri, remaining there for the rest of their lives. Mr. Benning, who
was engaged in farming all his days, died in 1832, and Mrs. Benning in 1866. N. P.
Benning, our subject, came to Canada and settled in October, 1862. He married, 27th
l^ovember, 1867, Mary O* Brian, who was born in Tipperary, Ireland, 4th November,
1842, and is an adherent of the Eoman Catholic faith. In 1868 Mr. Benning took
possession of the plug tobacco manufactory, in Paris, which was commenced by Vivian
^ Brown in 1865, that being the only tobacco manufactory in Paris, or even west of
Hamilton, then and at the present day. Feeling justified in enlarging his business,
Mr. Benning, in August, 1882, added cigar manufacturing to his plug tobacco busi-
ness, and has proved himself a most successful, enterprising man. As an evidence of
what enterprise and perseverance may attain to, we may record that when Mr.
Benning entered Paris a complete stranger, he had but about $6.25 in his pocket ! Mr.
and Mrs. B. have had a family of seven children, six of whom are now living — Mary
J., Anna S., Lillie E., Laura M., Alice L. and Martin K.
WM. F. BLA.IN, firmer, St George P.O., w^w bom December 6, 1841, in Nelson
Township, Halton County, and is the son of Jacob and Elizabeth Blain. Jacob Blain
was born, October 5th, 1808, in the State of New Jersey ; came to Canada with his
parents, Daniel and Elizabeth Blain, in 1811, and settled in Ancaster, South of Ham-
ilton, where he resided about two years, after which they removed to another part of
the same township on the road between Hamilton and Dundas. Subsequently they
purchased a farm from one Street, who lived near Niagara Falls, in East Flamboro',
directly across the bay from Hamilton ; they resided there until the 7th day of Dec.,
1853, when they came west into Dumfries, and settled on the farm on which he and
his son, William F., are now living. Mr. Jacob Blain was married, in 1839, to Eliza-
l)eth Tufford, daughter of Jacob and Jane Tufford, of Nelson Township. She was
born June 9, 1820. Mr. Blain's father was actively engaged in the War of 1812.
They had two children. William F., the oldest, is living on the homestead ; Elizabeth
Jane, the second child, was bom December 4, 1844, and was married, December 4,
1868, to Cyrus Kitchen, of Brantford Township. William F. Blain was married,
March 2, 1864, to Catherine Menzie, daughter of Robert and Catherine Menzie, of
South Dumfries ; she was bom July 22nd, 1838. Mr. and Mrs. Blain attend the
Methodist Church, and are the parents of two children — Minnie Florence, born July
14, 1865 ; and Norman M., bom December 27, 1871. Mr. Blain received a common
school education, and has been< successful in life. He is working 112 acrvs of well
improved land.
LEVI BOUGHTON, retired mason, Paris, is a native of Normandale, New York
State, where he was bom, 26th May, 1805. He is a son of Irie and Anna Bough ton,
who were bom in Connecticut, where they were also married. From that State they emi-
.grated to Albany County, State of New York, when young, and spent the remainder
of their days there, the husband in famiini; pursuits. Levi, our subject, was married,
2nd September, 1827, to Sida Mann, bom near Saratoga Springs 3rd December, 1810.
She was a daughter of George and Acenia Mann, of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Bough-
ton are members of the Baptist Church, and have had bom to them sixteen children,
seven of whom are living, viz.: Henry, Sarah, Levi, Mary, Charles, George and Lida.
They came to Canada and settled in Brantford in 1835, and in 1838 they removed to
Paris and remained there ever since, Mr. Boughton carrying on his trade as mason
aU. along. He has been honoured with the office of Church Deacon and Trustee ; he
had a liberal common school training, and found the rugged path of life one that,
through industry atid integrity, has proved itself a road to success. He has a com-
654 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
•
fortable home, in which he has lived for thirty years ; he owns four houses, besides
being in good financial circumstances.
O. D. BBADFORD (deceased) was a resident of Paris for over thirty years, and
was a native of the United States, coming to Canada from Pennsylvania. On his
arrival in the Dominion he entered into farming pursuits, and finally engaged in the-
hotel business, which he followed up to the day of his death, which occurrence took
place suddenly at his residence in Paris, 31st May, 1882. The late Mr. Bradford was
twice married, and his second wife was a Miss Lizzie Edmonds. She was bom in
Scotland, June 4, 1854, and emigrated to Canada with her parents when quite young.
She is the daughter of George and Lizzie Edmonds, both natives of Scotland. Mr.
Bradford amassed considerable wealth, and was beloved and respected by all who
knew him. In hiii removal by death Paris lost a good man and an industrious an<l
useful citizen.
GEOEGE BREMNER, Paris, is one of the standfirn pioneers of Brant County.
He was bom in Scotland, in Caithness-shire, on Easter Sunday, Apiil, 1803, and is
a son of Andrew and Janet Bremner, who were also natives of Scotland, where
they lived all their days. The former was a weaver through life, and two yetirs after
his death, George, whose biography we write, emigrated to the Hudson Bay Territory,,
where he remained six years, when he returned to Scotland for seven years, at the
expiry of which period he came out to Canada (1835) and settled in Paris, where he
kept store for seven years. Selling this business out, he took up a 50-acre fJEurm,
which he occupied for fifteen years, and this he also disposed of, and returned to the
land of his birth. After a two years' stay there, he finally came back to Canada^
and for a second time settled in Paris, where he is now residing. He married,
July 20, 1847, Isabella, daughter of Alexander Leech, and who was bom January 25,
1805, died Januarv 8, 1872. Mr. Bremner has in his possession a Bible, printed in
1620, a srift from. Mrs. Bremner's brother, who died on Christmas Day, 1866.
GEORGE BROWN, farmer. South Dumfries, was bom in the Township of Wind-
ham, Ontario, in December, 1836. His parents, George and Catharine Brown, who
were natives of England, emigrated to Canada previous to 1837, and settled in Simoney.
Ont., and afterwards in Windham Township. Subsequently they moved to Paris,,
where they spent the remainder of their days. The father died September 29, 1862,
and the mother in October, 1872, in the 77th year of her age. They were married in
England, and were engaged during their lifetime in farming. George, of whom thi»
sketch is intended, was married 29th September, 1860, to Susan Riddel, bom in
England, 11th February, 1838, and daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Kiddel. Mr.
and Mrs. Brown are members of the Methodist Church, and had a family of nine-
children, of whom there survive seven, viz., Henrietta, George R, Henry A.,
William C, Kate Elizabeth, Alice M., and Wallace C. Mr. Brown, who underwent
a good common school training, has, by his industry in farming, iiforked himself into
a good competencv. as he is now the owner of 200 acres of well cultivated land.
GEORGE C. BROWN, retired farmer, Paris, was bora Dec. 19, 1825, in Rome,
State of New York, and his parents, Lucian and Almira Brown, were natives of New
York. The foinier was born Jan. 24, 1803, died in 1879; and the latter was born
May 22, 1807, died in 187i5. They were manied in New York State about the year
1823, and lived in that State u[) to the day of their death. He was a hatter by trade,,
but in the latter part of his life took up the occupation of farming. George C, the
subject of this sketch, was married, June 29, 1853, to Anna Pettit, daughter of James
and Mary Pettit. She was born in the Township of Saltfleet, County of Wentworth,
Ont., July 7, 1825, and is a member of the Methodist body. To bless this union three-
children were born — Helen E., Charles H. (married), and Alva C. Mr. Brown came
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHEa 655
to Canada in 1848, and engaged in the stove business for a time, but subsequently
settled on afann in South Dumfries Township, and continued farming until 1881, when
he and his family moved into the Town of JParis, where they now reside. His sons
manage the home farm, which consists of 218 acres of well improved land, with good
buildings thereon. Since his arrival in Brant County, Mr. firown has met with the
success that industry and perseverance so justly merit.
WALTER K. BROWN, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in the
Township of Saltfleet, twelve miles below Hcmiilton, Ont., Sept 9, 1822. His parents,
William C. and Sophia A. Brown, were married in Saltfleet Township, and moved into
the County of Brant in 1833, where they settled on a farm within three miles of St.
Creorge. The father was bom in Ireland, Sept 2, 1778, died at Stony Creek, Jan. 9,
1854 ; the mother was bom in Montreal, Province of Quebec, May 20, 1782, died in
Brant County, June 2, 1862. In 1838 they moved to what was formerly known as
West Dumfries Township. Walter K. Brown, our subject, was married, March 27,
1845, to Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Margaret A. Weir, and bom in Ireland, Nov.
2, 1823 ; she died April 29, 1862, a firm adherent of the Presbyterian fiiith. When
Mr. Brown first entered the field of agricultural labour, he bought from his father 200
acres of land, which he traded to Hugh Mitchell for 100 acres. This last parcel he sold,
and purchased a share in a woollen factory, where Dr. Patton's grist mill stands, east of
the Village of St George, which he sold, and bought the 100 acres on which he now
lesidea Mr. and Mrs. Brown had a family of nine children, seven of whom are living,
viz.: Sophia A., wife of Robert Lindsay ; William C; Rebecca M., wife' of Wm. Robin-
son; Elizabeth J.; Ann J.; Samuel A., and Kingsley S. The deceased are Margaret
A., bom July 13, 1847, died Sept 1, 1848; and Walter, bom May 2, 1858, died Sept
21, 1858.
JOHN BUCHANAN, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in Gait,
County of Waterloo, Ontario, 15 th August, 1821, and is a son of Alexander and Betsy
Buchanan, natives of the United States, from which country they emigrated to Canada
about the year 1817, and first settled in Gait, where they remained four years. They
then movei to the farm in South Dumfries Township, on which Mr. Buchanan resided
till sixteen years ago, when he returned to Gait and retired into private life. He is
living there now with his second wife, hale and hearty, in his eighty -seventh year. His
first wife died on the farm in 1842, and his second was Mary Wylie, still living. Mr.
Buchanan had eleven children, ten of whom, six sons and four daughters, are still
living. John Buchanan, the subject of this biography, was married 28th March, 1850,
to Isabella McPherson, who was bom in New York State 17th November, 1826.
They are both members of the United Presbyterian Church at Gait Their only child,
Helen, was bom 19th August, 1851, and is the wife of Dr. Webb, Town of Waterloo,
Ontario. When Mr. Buchanan commenced life for himself, he purchased 100 acres of
land, on which he at present resides, and to this he has since added 184 acres, making
in all 284 acres of highly cultivated and improved land, bearing proofs of imdoubted
prosperity and industry.
JOHN BURRILL, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, is a native of Lincoln-
shire, England, where he was bom August, 1825. His parents, Joseph and Helen
Burrill, were also natives of England, where they passed their entire Uife. John, the
subject of this biography, was married 7th December, 1858, to Grace Balkwill, born in
Devonshire, England, April, 1843, and is a daughter of Robert and Grace BalkwOl,
who were also English, and lived and died in their native land. Mr. and Mrs. Burrill
are members of the Christian Church, and are the parents of eleven children, ten of
whom are now living, viz., Edward, Ellen L., James, George, Frederick, John R.,
Rosa L., William B., Emma J. and Thomas N. The name of the deceased is Lucy.
656 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Mr. Burrill emigrated about the year 1845 to the United States, and from there to
Canada, settling; for seven years in Paris, Ontario. He then moved to the farm, con-
sisting of 100 acres improved land, where be at present resides. •Mr. Burrill has been
•engaged in farming ever since he left Paris, and has met with success. Two of bis sons,
£dward and James, are trying their fortunes in the North- West Territory.
ROBERT BURT, retired farmer, Paris, was bom near Glasgow, Scotland, March
12, 1821, and is a son of John and Elizabeth Burt, who were also natives of Scotland.
The former was bom August 31, 1779, died in 1833, and the latter died in 185L
Robert Burt was married, August 24, 1842, to Abigail Cornwell, who was bom in the
<Hounty of Wentworth, Ont., lidarch 24, 1824, and is a daughter of Daniel and Catha-
rine Cornwell, who were among the oldest settlers of Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Burt are
the parents of six children, of whom five survive, viz., John K. and Daniel, who are
engaged in farming ; William and Franklin, both practising medicine — ^William at
Paris, Ontario, and Franklin at Norwalk, State of Ohio — and Estelle, married. The
deceased is Catharine, bom October 26, 1845, died January 16, 1849. Mr. Burt, who
received a good common school education, was a member of the first Council in the
Township of South Dumfries. The following were the members composing it : Wil-
liam Mullen, Daniel Anderson, William Roy, Robert Burt and James Sharp. Mr.
Burt has also filled the office of Justice of Peace in Brant County since its infancy, and
has also represented the township as Reeve, and the county as Warden. Mr. and
Mre. Burt are members of the Presbyterian Church, and are much respected and
beloved by all who are acquainted with them, and Mr. Burt, who is one of the hardy,
indomitable Brant County pioneers, has met with that success in his farming operations
which he so justly merits.
WM. BURT, M.B., Paris P.O., was born Utach 24, 1849. He studied at the
Toronto School of Medicine, from 1866 to 1870, with the exception of the summer of
1869, when he studied in New York. From August, 1870, until Auguit, 1871, he
'was on the staff of the Brooklyn City Hospital; from August, 1871,' until February,
1872, he was Acting Assistant Surgeon of the U. S. Army in Texas. Ho returned to
New York in Febraary, and in June, 1872, came to Paris, where he has practised his
^profession ever since. On the 16th of June, 1880, he was married to Miss Janet
McHoull Ballingal, daughter of David and Catharine Ballingal, of South Dumfries.
Dr. and Mn. Burt are the parents of one child, named Abigail Florence, bom July 5,
1882. They are connected with the Methodist Church, and the Doctor has for five
-years been a member of the Board of Education.
WALTER CAPRON, liquor dealer, Paris, is a native of the State of Vermont, U.S.,
bom there on 17th October, 1808. His parents, Joseph and Roxy Capron, natives
•of Massachusetts, were married in Vermont about the year 1707, and remained
there till their death. The father, who was a farmer through life, died in 1862, and
<the mother in 1872. Walter Capron, the subject of this sketch, came to Canada in
1834, and settled in Paris. He married, in Paris, 1836, Jane Delong, who was bom
in New York in 1809. She came to Canada with her parents, who are both dead.
The issue of this marriage was two children, Albert and Eliza M. White, who i» a
widow. Mr. Capren, who received a good common school education, has filled the
•office of Town Councillor for Paris for thirteen years, and has been a member of the
School Board for a number of years. He was the firet citizen to engage in tiie giain
trade after the Great Western Railway was completed, and is now engaged in the
liquor business, having a store in Paris. He has been very successful in life, and is
found to be a mast pleasant man to do business with.
JOHN CARNIE, Paris, builder and mason, is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland,
jhaving been bom there on 7th August, 1819. His parents were Alexander and Mar-
. BIOORAPHICAX SKETCHES. 657
garet Camie, both also natives of Scotland. The father, who was a farmer and miller,
was bom in 1782, died in Scotland in 1852, and the mother was born in 1792. She
left her native land on the death of her husband and came to Canada, where she took
up her residence with her son John at Paris, until the day of her death, which occurred
in 1862. John Camie was manied, Aug. 7th, 1850, to Margaret* Craigie, daughter of
George Craigie, and bom in Scotland, July 17th, 1826. Both are members of the
Congregational Church, in which he has held the office of Deacon for 23 years. He
has also been a Town Councillor for several years, is a member of the Board of School
Trustees, and holds a Commission as Justice of tlie Peace. He settled in Paris in 1843,
and has remained there to the present day. In 1867 Mr. Cande invented the hot air
furnace so generally in use for the purpose of ventilating and warming public build-
ings, etc., and he has been engaged all his life in building and masonry, in which he
has been very successful, to be attributed in a great measure to his industry and affable
and agreeable manner. The family of Mr. and Mrs. C. consists of six children — Mary
£. (wife of O. B. Whitty), John, Alexander, Greorge C, Maggie and Charles.
JOHN CARR, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, is a native of County
Armagh, Ireland, where he was bom 1st August, 1823; his parents, James and
Rachel Carr, being also natives of that countiy. They emigrated to Canada in 1834,
and settled in Brant County, where the father, who was a farmer through life, died in
1869, and the mother in 1860. John was married, 11th June, 1861, to Sarah Eliza-
beth Willett, of Hamilton, Ontario, where she was bom 23rd August, 1835, her
parents being William and Harriet Willett. Mr. and Mrs. Carr are members of the
Presbyterian Church, and are the parents of two children — William W. and Rachel.
Coming into Brant County with but very little means, Mr. Carr has proved himself
a very successful farmer, as he owns 100 acres of land, on which he resides, besides
being in comfortable circumstances otherwise.
JOHN CLINTON, Jr., owner of the sash, door and blind factory and planing miU,
Stb George, was bom in Ancaster, Ontario, 18th February, 1834. His parents, John
and Maria Clinton, were Canadians by birth, were married in 1833, and settled in
Brant County, where they resided the remainder of their lifetime, the latter dying
in 1835. John, Sr., who had been a farmer by occupation, and who died in 1872,
married his second wife, Mary McCrimmon, of Shediac, New Brunswick, in 1870.
John, Jr., the subject of this sketch, found himself a partner in life, in Ancaster,
Ontario, in the person of Elizabeth McCrimmon, daughter of Archibald McCrimmon.
They were married 16th March, 1836, and are both members of the Methodist Church,
and have been blessed with a family of eight children, viz., Theodore K, Caorista M.,
Delmar E., Catharine A., Mary, John, Minnie and Cora A. Mr. Clinton, who under-
went a good common school training, is one of the oldest settlers in St. Oeorge, where
he has met with considerable success in business. The planing mill he owns in the
village was established five years ago, and is the largest in the place. In summer
there is full employment for from ten to twelve hands, and in winter for from six to
eight This mill was used, prior to Mr. Clinton owning it, as a grist mill under the
proprietorship of John Richardson.
CORNELIUS CLUMP, farmer, Paris P.O., was bom October 28, 1822, in South
Dumfries, Lot 17, first concession, and is a son of Zachariah and Jane Clump. His
father was bom in Duchess County, State of New York, 6th of September, 1 787, and
died January 10, 1863. Mrs. Clump was also bom in Duchess County, New York
State, on the 4th of October, 1793, and she died April 7, 1874. They came to Canada
about the year 1819, and were married September 4, 1821, in Dumfries, and settled
on the lot on which his son Cornelius now lives. To them were bom seven children ;
ax are yet living. Their names are : Cornelius, Rachel, married to Elan Green, of
658 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
South Dumfries ; John, married to Amanda Jane, daughter of Edward Kitchen, of
South Dumfries ; Alonzo, at present owning a farm adjoining the homestead ; Harriet
Ann and Eliza Jane. G^ertrude died August 30, 1832. They were members of the
Baptist Church, as are also the family. The original homestead consisted of 150
acres of land, but both he and his sons kept adding to it, until at the present time
they h^ve 980 acres under cultivation, Cornelius owning 500 and Alonzo 480. This
land was owned by Mr. Dickson* Previous to that, to the best of Mr. Clump's belief,,
a Mr. Penman was the owner.
DAVID E. GULP, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, is a native of the Town-
ship of Clinton, County of Lincoln, Ont, where he was born 20th January, 1827,
and is a son of Jonas and Mary Culp, who were also born in Canada, the former in
1798, and the latter in 1800. The father, who was a farmer, died in 1845, and the
mother in 1877. They were married in Canada, but never came to the County of
Brant. David R Culp, the subject of this biography, was married, 12th November^
1850, to Elizabeth Grobb, who was born in the same township as her husband^ 26th
June, 1829. She is a daughter of David and Elizabeth Grobb. Mr. and Mrs. Culp,
who are adherents of the Meth^nlist body in Paris, are the parents of nine children,,
seven of whom are now alive, viz. : Dudley J., bom 30th April, 1855 ; Joshua F.^
bom 38th July, 1859 ; Martha C, born on Christmas Day, 1861 ; Elizabeth S., bom
5th June, 1864 ; Eleanor A., born 28th July, 1867 ; Eveline L. C, born 12th August,
1869 ; and Silas W. C, born 9th April, 1872. Hervey D. was bom 9th October, 1851,
died 3rd September, 1879; and Mary W. was bom 25th June, 1853, died 17th
February, 1872. Mr. Culp, who had the benefit of a good common school training,
has practised farming from boyhood, and met with well merited success. He settled
on the farm on which he ind his family at present reside when first coming to Brant
County in 1851. He bought 144 acres of well cultivated land, having good buildings
thereon.
WILLIAM GRANVILLE CURTIS, deceased, was bom at Sing Sing. State of
New York, in 1804, and was a son of William and Elizabeth (Sutton) Curtis, the
former of whom was a native of England, and the latter of New York City, where
they were married, and where they lived up till 1807, in which year Mrs. Curtis
died. William Curtis next married Esther Kinnion, and subsequently they mig-
rated to Canada in 1814, and settled for a short time at Norwich, Ontario; after
which they moved to Paris, and stayed with the Holme family in what was the
first house of any description there. It was a log house, and stood in what is
now known as the Upper Town. In course of a short time Mr. Curtis purchased
from Thomas Graham, an English gentleman and a cousin of the Holme family,
the Brumhill Farm, consisting of 500 acres, in Brantford Township, and here he
and his wife, who were both Quakers, lived the rest of their days. William Gran-
ville, their only son, and the subject of this biography, was united in marriage,
April 11, 1831, with Elizabeth, daughter of Robert and Nancy Reid, who were
natives of Roxburghshire, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States in 1819, where
they died. Elizabeth, their daughter, was bom in Scotland, March 23, 1811, and her
husband died on tbe Brumhill Farm, Nov. 27, 1843. The widow and her family leit
the farm, which they still own, in 1880, and moved to the Town of Paris, where they
at present reside. They are members of the Presbyterian Church, while Mr. Curtis,
in his lifetime, was an adherent of the Church of England. He had been a Justice of
the Peace for many years, even before the Rebellion of '37. His judgment was good,
and he was respected by all classes. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had a family of six children,
four of whom survive, viz. : Hester F., wife of George Carroll ; Elizabeth J., Margaret
and M. Granville. The deceased are William Granville, bom Jan. 27, 1832, died
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 659
MarQh, 1S57; and Christopher H., bom July 5, 1837, died July 26, 1866. As a
farmer, Mr. Cnrtis met with no ordinary success, and at his death possessed 1,300
acres of land, besides a third interest in two plaster quarries, tie left all to his
family.
KOB£RTDALZELL, farmer, Blue Lake, Paris P.O., was bom in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland, on the llth of March, 1824. He was the son of John and Agnes (Dickson)
Dalzell, of Dumfriesshire, who both came to Canada in the year 1856, and settled near
where he engaged in farming. About three years later the elder Dalzell died, and
Eobert accompanied his mother back to Scotland, where she passed away in the year
1879. Mr. Eobert Dalzell was married, in 1854, to Margaret Bell, daughter of Thomas
and Alice filackstock, of Dumfriesshire, by whom he had one son, John B., who is at
present studying law in Berlin, She died in the year 1864. In March, 1872, he was
married to Isabella Anderson, daughter of John and Helen (Gray) Anderson, who
were both bom in Scotland. They came to Canada in the year 1834, where Mr. An-
derson died in 1865, but Mrs. Anderson still survives, and, although in her 78th year,
is hale and hearty. Mrs. Dalzell was bom March 28, 1837. Mr. and Mrs. Dalzell are
members of the United Presbyterian Church. He received a common school education,
and is at present working 125 acres of land. They have had five children, of whom
four survive — Janet Gray, Isabella Gray, Nellie Gray and James Ajiderson.
JAMES DICKSON, M.D., Paris, was bom in England, July 3, 1815, and is the
eldest son of David and Anna Dickson, who were married in Edinburgh, Scotland,
June 29, 1812. The former was a native of Scotland, and a half-pay officer in H.M.
16th Light Dragoons, when he died at Toronto, Feb. 1838; the latter, who was bom
in Ireland, died at Paris, Ont., March 8, 1868. They had a family of six children —
four boys and two girl&--of whom three sons are living. On emigrating to Canada, in
1837, they settled in Brant County, and at that time the Doctor was 22 years of age.
Having received his education at Edinburgh High School and College, and taken his
course in mfnlicine in that city, he passed the critical examination of the University,
and obtained his diploma in 1836. On arriving in Canada he commenced practising
in York, but owing to the prevalence of ague there, he removed, in two years, to
Woodstock, where he remained until 1848, when he came to Paris, the scene of hia
future labours. The Doctor has seen many changes in Paris since first setting foot in
it. Then there was one woollen mill, owned by Daniel Totten ; one mill and one dis-
tillery, of which Norman Hamilton was proprietor. The first church (English Epis-
copal) was erected in 1838, and there were one school house, three hotels, and one
bridge. The name of the Postmaster was George McCartney, whose duties, no doubt,
were not very onerous in those days long gone by.
WILLIAM DRYNAN, farmer, Paris P.O., South Dumfries Township, was bom
in Scotland, Dec. 6, 1826, and is a son of William and Janet Drynan, also natives of
Scotland, in which country they both departed this life. The father died in 1838, and
the mother in 1853, their lives having been spent in farming. William, their son,
emigrated to Canada in 1854, and settled on the farm in South Dumfries, where he
now resides. On June 2, 1869, he married Christina Tumbull, a native of South
Dumfries, and a member of the same church as himself, the Presbyterian. She was
bom June 5, 1840, and is a daughter of Robert and Christina Tumbull. This union
has been blessed with a family of six children: Christina, bom Sept. 7, 1870; Janet,
bom August 19, 1872; William, born March 7, 1874; Robert, born May 10, 1875;
David, bom Nov. 9, 1876; and John, bom Oct. 16, 1879. Mr. Drynan has, by his
eneigy and perseverance, placed himself in comfortable circumstances, and he can
look back with satisfaction to a career of success as a farmer.
THOMAS EASTON, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, is a son of Alexander
and Jane Easton, natives of Roxburghshire, Scotland. They emigrated to Canada in
660 HISTORY OF BRANT COUXTV.
«
1840, and settled in Brant County, where they remained np to the day of their death.
The father died in December, 1867, and the mother on 23rd February, 1874. Mr.
Easton, Senr., was a farmer in Brant County, but had been a shepherd preirious to
leaving Scotland. Thomas Easton, our subject, who was bom 30th August, 1830,
married, 3l8t March, 1863, Mary Richmond, a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, where she
was bom 24th January, 1839. She is a daughter of William and Ann Richmond, also
natives of Scotland. Mrs. Easton's father died 8th March, 1879, and her mother is
still living. Mr. and Mi-s. Easton, who are members of the Presbyterian Church, and
of which he is Secretary at the present time, have a family of seven children, viz.,
Alexander, William, George, Arthur J., Annie Dickie, Thomas and John R. Mr.
Easton, who underwent a good common school training, filled the office of School
Trustee for six years, and has been a very prosperous farmer. When first starting in
life, he bought 100 acres of land, and has kept on increasing, until he now owns 290
acres of well cultivated and improved land, with excellent buildings on the home
farm.
ROBERT EASTON, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, was bom in Scotland,
July 1, 1835, and is a son of Alex, and Jeanie Easton, also natives of Scotland. They
emigrated to Canada fn 1840, and settled on the farm, in South Dumfries Township,
where Robert and his family are at present living, and there they remained the rest
of their days. The father was bom in 1785, and died December 20, 1868; the mother
was born in 1795, and died February 23, 1874. Mr. Easton, Sr., was engaged in
farming while in Brant County. Robert Easton, whose biography we write, was
united in marriage, February 1, 1866, with Euphemia Laidlaw, who was a daughter of
Andrew Laidlaw, and bom in Scotland in December, 1842, and died October 7, 1878.
She was a member, along with her husband, of the Presbyterian Church. Their family
consists of five children — Alexander, eleanie K., Andrew L., John R. and Elizabeth A.
Mr. Enston has engaged himself in agricultural work all his life, and has been very
prosperous. He owns 200 acres of improved land, with solid buildings thereon, and is
in generally comfortable circumstances.
WILLIAM ELLIS, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, is a native of Waterloo
County, Ontario, and was bom 14th Aprils 1818. His father was one of the first
settlers in this section of Canada, having emigrated f tx>m his native land, Ireland, at a
very early day. He died in South Dumfries Township about the year 1845, and his
wife, who was from Pennsylvania, died also in South Dumfries, February, 1866. They
were married in Canada, and settled in Waterloo County originally, hut finally moved
to South Dumfriea William Ellis, our subject, married in 1839, Hannah Howell,
bom in Dumfries Township, 19th June, 1821, died 12th December, 1853 ; she was a
daughter of Jonah Howell. Mr. Ellis again married, taking for his second wife Jane
Cushnaghan, born in Ireland, 20th September, 1831, and a daughter of Edward Cuah-
naghan. She was only two years of age when she left Ireland for Canada with her
parents ; her father died, 8th November, 1881. Mr. Ellis, and both his first and second
wife were members of the Baptist Church, and he himself has acted as School Trustee
for several terms. By his first wife he had a family of eight children, of whom five
survive, viz., Jonah, Mary, Sarah J., Alice M. and Hannah. The deceased are Mar-
garet, Catharine and an infant. By his second marriage were born five, all living —
James H., Edward, Judson, William S. and Frank L. Success has closely attended
Mr. Ellis' perseverance and industrial habits, for from nothing comparatively he has
become owner of 198 acres improved land, with fine buildings, and this he has acquired
since coming into the County of Brant.
HUGH FINLAYSON, ex-member of Parliament and proprietor of the tanneries,
Paris, was bora in Scotland, December 12, 1810, and is the son of Hugh and Isabella
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 661
FinlayBon, also natives of Scotland, where they lived and died. Hugh Finlayson, our
subject, was united in marriage, October 4, 1831, with Elizabeth Russell (who was
born in 1812 and died in 1845), and on September 17, 1846, he found his second wife,
in the person of Miss Miller, bom in Scotland in 1827, died January 1, 1865. Mr.
Finlayson is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which denomination both his
deceased wives were also adherents. He was a member of Parliament three sessions,
and sat twelve years in the Local House ; he has also filled the offices of Councillor,
Mayor, Reeve and Justice of the Peace, which latter office he still holds. Mr. Finlayson
had by his first wife five children, and by his second, four, and of these, two of each
maternity are now living — Hugh, William, John and Catharine. He has been con-
nected with the political history of the County of Brant from its infancy, and at the
psesent time, should any question of importance arise that might militate to the welfare
or derogation of the community or the country, Mr. Finlayson will buckle on his armour
and actively stand up for the right.
GAVIN FLEMING, J. P. and ex-member of Parliament, was born at the Farm of
Shieldhill, near Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on 5th June, 1826, and is a son of
the late John and Margaret (Dobbie) Fleming, both of whom came to Canada in 1831,
where the former died in 1835, at the age of thirty-five. His widow, who was bom
in 1803, is still living. On their advent in Canada, they settled on the Governor's
Roady Brant County, and Mr. Fleming is justly classified among the early adventurous
pioneer farmers of the coimty. Gavin Fleming, our subject, was married, 21st Dec.,
1852, to Margaret Lapraik, a native of Canada, having been born in the Count^p of
Brant 18th April, 1817 ; she was a daughter of James and Janet Lapraik. Mr. and
Mrs. Fleming, who are members of the Presbyterian Church, are the parents of five
children, of whom four survive, viz. : John (the Postmaster at Glenmorris), James,
William and George. Margaret, who was bom 31st December, 1865, died 6th March,
1879. Mr Fleming was educated at Falkirk, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1849.
For twenty-six years he was engaged in mercantile business in Glenmorris. He was
Treasurer for South Dumfries Township during a term of four years ; was made a Justice
of the Peace in 1863, and appointed a Commissioner for taking Affidavits in the
Court of Queen's Bench in 1870. He was first returned to the Dominion Parliament
at the general elections of 1872, was re-elected by acclamation in 1874, and re-elected
in 1878; upon the dissolution of Parliament in 1882, he retired from public life. Mr.
Fleming when in Parliament was an advocate of a prohibitory liquor law, an elective
Senate, a liberal land policy, the enfranchisement of the Indians in the older settled
districts of the country, and was in favour of a fair and equitable Reciprocity Treaty.
MALCOLM FOLSETTER, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, is a native of
the Orkney Islands, where he was bom 13th June, 1806, and is a son of William and
Ann Folsetter, natives of Scotland, where they resided all their lives. The father,
who had been a blacksmith in his early days, but latterly a farmer, died in 1855.
Malcolm emigrated to Canada in 1836, first settling in Beverly, then in Flamboro',
and finally in South Dumfries Township. He was united in marriage, 30th October,
1846, with Jennette Reid, a native of Stirlingshire, Scotland, where she was bom in
1812. She died 16th June, 1879, and was a member of the same church as her
husband, the Dumfries Street Presbyterian Church of Paris, Canada. Their family
consisted of two sons — William (single), who was bom 6th November, 1847, and John
R., bom 26th March, 1850, and who married, 3rd May, 1881, Margaret Flett, who
was bom 30th April, 1858. They have one child, James Ivan Reid. When it is
considered that the Orkney Islands have always sent out into the world hardy and
pushing men, it is no subject of surprise to find Mr. Folsetter so successful as he
has be^ since setting foot in the County of Brant, which was in the year 1842.
662 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
JAMES FORD, proprietor of the only saw mill in Glenmorris, is a native of
Canada, having been born 16th February ^ 1837, and is a son of James and Margaret
Ford, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of England. They emigrated to
Canada, where the father (who had followed the trade of a baker in the mother
country, but became a farmer in Canada) died in 1846, and the mother in 1860.
The farm which Mr. Ford, Senr., possessed at the time of his death is now owned by
his son, and is located on Lot No. 19, 7th concession. James, the subject of this
sketch, was married, 19th January, 1868, to Agnes Sudden, daughter of John and
Margaret Sudden, and who was born 29th January, 1848. They have a family of
four children — Jtimes, Margaret H., Alice H. and Antoinette. The saw mill which Mr.
Ford first owned was built in 1872, and was destroyed by fire in 1877. Mr. Ford
rebuilt the same year the saw mill he at present owns, and it is one adapted in all
respects for logging, cutting shingles, etc., and has proved, in a business point of view,
an eminent success. He is also owner of the property that lies between his house and
the river, as well as a blacksmith shop and two separate properties, one 140 acres and
the other 290 acres — in all, 430 acres — besides his town property and 100 acres in the
Township of Melancthon. He has also associated the business of lime burning, and
has made himself, by his enterprise, one of the most prosperous men in the county.
JOHN GRAHAM, farmer. Oak Lea House, Paris P.O., was bom October 19, 1852.
He is the son of John and Jane Graham, who were both born in Dumfriesshire, Scot-
land. His father was born June 9, 1806, and died August 9, 1872. Mrs. Graham
was born in June, 1816, and is still living, hale and hearty. Mr. Graham, the father
of our subject, came to Canada in the year 1834. Subsequently he retuined to Scot-
land, and again came to Canada in the spring of 1837, and settled on Lots 17 and 18
of Dumfries Township, the farm on which his son John now lives. Mr. and Mrs.
Graham were the parents of nine children, four of whom are living. Their names are :
Janet, bom April 30, 1840, and is married to James Reith, of Thornhill, County of
York ; John, at present living on the homestead ; Robert, bom April 16, 1855 ; Thomas
J., born March 31, 1859, and married, April, 1881, to Catherine Fleming, of Paris.
John Graham, our subject, was married, March 4, 1874, to Catherine, daughter of
Andrew and Margaret (Currie) Graham, who lived in Dumfries. He 4s the father of
two ^ildren, named John Andrew, boi*n July 28, 1875 ; and Margaret Jane, born
August 25,. 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Graham are members of the Presbyterian Church,
St. George. He obtained a common school education, and has been very prosperous,
at present owning and working 275 acres of improved land.
RICHARD GREEN, farmer, St. George P.O., was born at Stony Creek, March 5,
1828, and was a son of Richard and Rachel Green. His father was bom in the
State of New Jersey, in 1789, and he died August 8, 1861. His mother was bom in
the State of Pennsylvania in the year 1791, and she died December 1, 1866. They
came to Canada with their parents about the beginning of this century, and settled at
Stony Creek, where they lived until the year 1831, when they moved into Dumfries
Township, and he settled on Lot 12, second concession, where his son Richard at pre-
sent resides. Mr. Richard Green was married, in the year 1854, to Mai^ret Ann
Howell, daughter of Levi and Margaret Howell, of Dumfries Township. They have
been blessed with 'two children — John, born March 21, 1860, was married September
17, 1880, to Mina Gollen, of Dumfries Township ; they are the parents of one child —
Herbert Richard, born April 25, 1882. Arthur, ther youngest son, was born Oct 13,
1869. The late Mr. William Dickson having obtained the land through the Govern-
ment from the Indians, there were no squatters. The first settlers in this pare of the
country were Reuben Dayton and Samuel Lennington ; they were living on the second
concession of Dumfries. A man named Connor was the first settler on the land on
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 663
which Mr. Green is now located. The first mill for gristing was built about a mile
or a mile and a quarter from St. George.
WILLIAM GRIFFITH, farmer. South Dumfries Township, was bom in Beverly,
Ontario, May 9, 1819, and is a son of Eleazer and Sarah Griffith. The father wap
bom in Connecticut, and died in Dumfries Township, March 12, 1844. He followed
fanning pursuits all his life. The mother was bom in Pennsylvania, and is still living
in Dumfiies Township, in her eighty-seventh year. They migrated to Canada about
the year 1817, and settled at first in Beverly, but ultimately moved into Dumfiies.
William Griffith, whose biography we are writing, was united in marriage, January 4.
1363^ with Mary King, dahghter of John King, and a native of Wellington County ,^
^heie she was born Oct. 12, 1835. Mr. and Mrs. Griffith attend the Baptist Church,
8t. George, and have a family of seven childi*en — George, Jennie, John, Cyms, Lavina,
William and Herbert. Mr. Griffith hat» filled the office of Constable for three years,
and has met with good success generally since coming to Brant County. He bought
the old homestead farm, on which his father died, consisting of 75 acres, and on which
be at present resides.
J. H. HACKLAXD is a member of the firm of Adams, Hackland & Co., of the
Grand Kiver Elnitting Mills, Paris, l)nt. He was born in the Orkney Islands on 20th
June, 1843, and is a son of William and Maggie Hackland. They also are natives of
Che Orkney Islands, where they remained until 1852, when they moved to Australia,
where they still reside. J. H. Hackland, the subject of this sketch, emigrated to
Canada June 30, 1868, and settled in Paris, where he has resided ever since. He was
married in the Orkneys, on March 12, 1868, to Jane Flett, daughter of George Flett,
and born Jan. 10, 1848. They have had a family of five children, of whom three sur-
vive— Ma^ie, George H., and John Charles. The names of the deceased are James W.
and William James. Mr. ^nd Mrs. Hackland are members of the Congregational
Church, Paris, and Mr. H. has filled the office of Councillor in Paris for four years.
He is at present Deputy Reeve. When he first came to Paris, Mr. Hackland was in
limited circumstances, but has since, through his industry and perseverance, become a
member of the comparatively wealthy class in the Town of Paris.
NORMAN HAMILTON. Esq. (deceased), was a native of Mendon, N.Y. He
removed to Canada about 18^28, settling first in Mudge Hollow (now called Canning),
and thence removed to Paris in 1831. He married his fii-st wife, Miss Elizabeth S.
Cook, Jan. 1, 1837; she died Dec. 19, 1861. His second marriage was with Miss
Elizabeth Ebbs, Jan. 1, 1863; she died June 26, 1864, leaving an infant daughter,
who survives her father. His third marriage was with Mrs. Sarah Wick son Carruthers,
Aug. 23, 1865, who survived him. Mr. Hamilton's domestic life was very happy, and
uniformly such as all the relations oi husband and parent required. He excelled as a
business man, and by his practical shrewdness often served others as well as himself.
For many years he owned a grist mill in Paris, but acquired sufficient property to retire
from active business many years before he died. He was no party politician, but a
Christian patriot and reformer, and took a deep interest in whatever affected the peace
or prosperity of his adopted country. He served the public in municipal and other
offices, and took an active part in various ])hilanthropic enterprises ; especially did he
<levote much time and personal labour in the introduction of English emigrant boys to
Canadian homes, and many a man whom he thus befriended when a lad will i*em''mber
him with gratitude. Mr. Hamilton was generous to benevolent societies, and gave
liberally to the American Board of Foreign Missions, church building schemes, colleges,
etc., etc., some of which shared with his only daughter and wife, at his death, the
competency which his thrift and business tact had acquired. Hillside, the beautiful
residence on the bank of Grand River, which is teri*aced and planted, will long keep
664 HISTORY OF BKAXT COUNTY.
Mr. Hamilton's name in remembrance. There are perhaps few if any more beaatif«l
grounds, or a more desirable situation in Paris.
STEPHEN HA£yi£, proprietor of the only flouring mill in Glenmonifl, is a
native of Scotland, where he was bom 27th Oct, 1829, and is the son of John and
Mary Bell Harvie, also natives of Scotland, where they were married. The father,
who had been a road surveyor for the greater part of his life, died in 1870, and
the mother in 1844. Stephen Harvie, of whom this sketch is intended, was onited
in marriage in. Canada, 4th July, 1854, with Minnie Nichol, born in Scotland, 17th
July, 1827, and daughter of Thomas Nichol. Stephen emigrated from Scotland to
Brantford, in 1848, and has spent the most of his days in Brant County. The mill
he owns was built about 25 yeare ago, and he took possession of it in 1869, previous
to which a Mr. Fleming was proprietor. Mr. Harvie has done well in his milling oper-
atioi^ since he commenced, and, besides doing a good country trade, exports largely
to the European markets, which have been his principal seat of trade for the past
ten years. Mr. and Mrs. Harvie, who are adherents of the Presbyterian Church,
have a family of two children — Margaret, wife of A. Buchanan, and Mary, single.
Mr. Harvie was member for South Dumfries Township for one year.
HENRY HAWLEY is one of the early pioneers of Brant County. He was bom in
Westchester County, State of New York, 16th August, 1803, and is a son of the
late David and Sarah Hawley, also natives of New York State, who emigrated
to Canada in 1812, and settled in Brantford Township, where they resided till the
day of their death. David Hawley, who had been a farmer all his life, died in 1844,
and his wife several years previously. Henry, who was educated at a common
school, was married 9th November, 1824, to Charlotte File, who was bom in Biant
County, 6th February, 1805, and was a daughter of John and Sarah File. Mr. and
Mis. Henry Hawley, who are members of the M. £. Church, have had a fiunily of
thirteen children, nine of whom survive, viz., Alexander, William, Maria, Mincvra,
Eliza J., Thomas H., Mary Ann, Francis and Alfred. Thomas, son of the subject of this
sketch, was bom 18th September, 1842, and married, 26th October, 1864, Elizabeth
Emeiy, who was bom in Canada, Febraary, 1843. Their family numbered fire
children, four of whom survive : Henry, bom 14th March, 1868; Charles W., bom
22nd March, 1870 ; Hattie M., bom 9th September, 1872; and Walter E., bom Oct.
12, 1875; Emily J. was bom 10th September, 1865, and died in the fall of the
year 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley are both members of the M. £. Church, and
reside in Dumfries Township. Mr. Hawley, who received a good oommotn school
education, has proved a very successful farmer. Of his relatives residing in Bnmt
County are his father and mother, his sister Minerva, and his brother Alfred.
FIRMAN HOWELL, farmer, St. George P.O., Township of South Dumfries, was
bom on the farm where he and his family now reside on 22nd May, 1826, and is a
son of Isaac L. and Mary Howell, natives of New Jersey. The former was bom in
1788, died 5th March, 1860, and the latter was bom in 1794, and was killed, Novem-
ber, 1841, through being thrown out of a buggy. Our subject was uniteil in marriage,
28th September, 1845, with Rachel Cassada, who was bom in Dumfries Township,
16th July, 1829, and is a daughter of James and Phoebe Cassada, the former of wImxd
was bom 15th January, 1 791, died 24th April,1876, and the latter was bom loth March,
1796, and is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Howell. Mr. Howell and his wife are
members of the Canada Methodist Church, in which Mr. Howell has filled the offices of
Steward and Trustea Their family consists of four children : Mary A., wife of John
Kinney ; James B., united in marriage with Eachel E. Lawrason ; Sarah J., wife of
Jolin Wood j and Isaac R, single. When Mr. HoweU first started in life, he engaged
in agricultural pursuits, in which he has continued ever since. Inheriting, on the
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 665
death of his father, 106 acres of land, he has, by assiduity and indaetry, added to them^
till he now owns a fine farm of 273 acres of highly cultivated land. Mr. Howell and
his family are descendants of one of the oldest fimilies in the County of Brdut.
• JOHN IRVING (deceased) came into the Township of South Dumfries at a very
early day, when the County of Brant was covered with wild bush, and settled him-
self among the early pioneers in the work of clearing the land. He was bom in New-
York, 8th June, 1808, and was a son of Robert and Ellen Irving, both natives of
Scotland, and who emigrated tQ the United States, whpre they were married. From
there they moved into Canada, and both died on the farm at present occupied by the
widow of John Irving, the subject of this biography. The latter was married, 11th
February, 1841, to Mary Ann Rosebrugh, who was bom in Beverly, Ontario, 7th
Jan., 1818, and is a daughter of William and Barbara Rosebrugh. John died 22nd
July, 1870, and was a member, as well as his wife, of the Baptist Church. Ue was
a carpenter by trade originally, but was engaged in farming the greater part of his
life. To Mr. and Mrs. Irving were born seven children, six of whom survive :
Lucinda A., wife of John Baker ; William R., married ; Sarah M., single ; Robert
P., single ; John T., married ; and Barbara H., wife of Wm. M. McCully. Hiram H.
was bom 18th May, 1854, died Sept. 14th, 1865. Mr. Irving purchased 178 acres,
which he left behind him, with a comfortable home, for his widow and family. Since
his death, Robert P., his son, has purchased the home farm, and the unmarried chil-
dren still remain with their mother.
CHARLES P. KEEFER, Postmaster and merchant, St. George, was bora four miles
from that village, on January 20, 1851, and is a son of Joseph N. and Elizabeth (Par-
sons) Keefer, the former a native of Thorold, Ont., where he was born Sept. 18, 1810,
and died March 22, 1878, and the latter born in New York State Feb. 3, 1820, and
died April 8, 1866. They were married Dec. 6, 1836, and had eight children, S'*ven of
whom survive, viz., Jeriisha, Fanny,Jane,Lavinia, Charles P., Anna D.and Catherine M.;
Mary Ann, who died July 19, 1847, was born Jan. 13, 1845. Marrying in Brant Co.,
they settled four miles from St. George, and removed into the village in 1857, where
they ramained till their death. Mr. Keefer, Sr., was engaged for some time as a farmer
at first, and subsequently in mercantile pursuits. Charles P. Keefer, the subject of our
sketch, w»is married, Oct. 13, 1877, to Emma C, daughter of William J. and Rosa
Guppy. She was born at Newburg, Oct. 26, 1858, and died Sept. 1, 1880. Mr.
Keefer had a common school training, and h:is met with much success. He is a mem-
ber of the Masonic Order in St. George, and was appointed Postmaster there on Aug.
4, 1879, as successor to James Reid. Mr. and Mi-s. Keefer had but one child, Greorge
R,born May 3, 1880, and died Sept. 16, 1880.
PHILIP KELLY, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, was born near Ancaster,
February 2, 1806, and is a son of Jonathan and Charity Kelly, the former of whom
was a native of the State of New Jersey. He was married three times, his first wife
being a Miss Shafer, his second Miss Charity Fisher, and his third Miss Jane Lowry,
who was also a native of the State of New Jersey. She died September 1, 1849, aged
82 years, 11 months; her husband died April 27, 1852, aged 81 years, 6 months^
24 days ; he was engaged in farming all his days, and was one of the first settlers in
Ancaster Township. He was born October 3, 1770. Philip Kelly, the subject of this
sketch, was married, March 26, 1832, to Elizabeth Smoker, who was born near Hanul-
ton, Ont., October 26, 1811, and is a daughter of William and Anna Smoker, who were
from New Jersey. Mr. Kelly moved to Brant County in 1833, and settled on the
farm adjoining the one on which he at present resides. When he first settled there he
bought 100 acres of land, and at one time was owner of 700 acres, part of which he has.
distribated among his children and others, till he has now but 425 acres in the old hornet
40
666 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
form remaining. He bad tbe full experience in bii) lifetime of tbe trials and viciaai-
tudes of pioneering, sb tbe Inud, which is now under a bigb state of ciittiration, and
studded with aubatititial farai-houtiee and outbuildings, was wild and covered vitb
busb, in subduing wbicb Mr. KeUy was well scbooled in the Held of hardship;
but success attended bia peneverauce and industry. He baa filled the office of
School Trustee for many yean. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are tbe parents of eleven
children, of whom nine survive, viz., Henry R., Jane, jilarfiaret, WUIiam, Eupbemia.
Sarah, Philip, Jacob and Mary M. The deceased are Rebecca, bom January 31,
1847, died August 19, 1848, and one that died in infancy.
EDWARD KITCHEN, former, St. George P.O., was bom Sept 14, 1800, near
Hackettatown, New Jersey. He came to Canada with two brothers in Sept, 1818, and
located for a short time near Simcoe, Norfolk County. Subsequently he moved weec
and bought 100 acres of land ntar Fiugnl, in Elgin County, about seven miles from
St. Thomas. Two years later be again came east, and on tbe 10th of April, 1826,
settled on the farm on which he now lives. On March 12, 1820, he married l^unice
Culver, daughter of Captain and Elisabeth Culver, who at that time lived in Norfolk
County, near Simcoe; she was born Feb. 32, 1801, and died Feb. 28, 1864. Mr.
Kitchen is a member of the Baptist ('hurcb in St George, where he haa been a Deacon
for oVer 40 years ; he has been a Magistrate for more than 30 years. Mr. Kitchen
lias been fnirly successful iu life, and has settled bis famQy comfortably in the vicinity
of the hoiuestead. He is the futber of eleven children, who are all living. Their
names are James B., bom July 13, 1820; Sarah Ann, April 1, 1822; Alfred.
July 24. 1823; VesU, Feb. II, 1826; Amaiida Jane, Feb. 23, 1828; Harriet, Feb. I,
1830; Martha, Seiit 5, 1832; Umuel, Aug. 25, 1834; Nesbet, Dec. 11, 1836;
Kilwrtrd, M«y 22, 1841 ; Salem, June 29, 1843. Two of .Mr. Kitchen's sons af present
live at houie^Kesbet and Salem. Salem was married, March 22, 1876, to Louisa,
ilaughter of Joseph and Charlotte Burrows, of Brnnchton, who have both been dead
for some years. Edward and his wife are members of the Baptist Church at St.
tieoi-ge.
GEORGE W. KITCHEN, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was born in that
township, in tbe same house where he and his fimily are now living, July 16, 1851.
Ho is the son of Martin and Lorenda Kitchen, the former of whom was born March
8, 1818, in the State of New Jersey, and tbe latter was born in Oakland Tuwuship,
Ontario, Dec. 8. 1818. They were 'married in Canada Oct. 6, 1841, and afterwards
settled on the farm where they now reside, and where they have made their abode for
nearly forty-two years. Their family consisted of eight children, four of whom are now
liying— Alice, wife of Washingtnn Moxley ; Henry, married to Terressa Pambleton ;
George W., the subjpct of our sket<;h (married, June 9, 1880, Mary A. Jackson, who
was born near Brantford on Nov. 1, 1858); and EIraa M., single, at home with her
parents. Mr. and Mra. George W. Kitchen are adherents of the Methodist body, and
are the parents of two children, Albert W. and Lowell W. The old couple are in their
""' 1 hale and hearty. George W. manages tbe homefarm, and iseujoy-
r.
KITCHEN, farmer, St George P.O., was bom July 13, 1820, near
Township, County of Norfolk, and came to Dumfries in the year
Bon of Edward and Eunice Kitchen. His father was born in
te of New Jersey, Sept. 14, 1800, and came to Canada in 1818.
)oni Feb. 22, 1801, near Simcoe, Norfolk Co., and died in Dumfries,
r. James B. Kitchen was married, Oct. 9, 1842, to Sarah Howell,
nd Mary Howell, South D>imfriea ; Isaac died on March S, I860,
Tov. 21, 1841. Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen are membera of the Bsptiat
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 667
Churchy in which he has heen Deacon for ovor twenty years. He bought the farm on
which he is now living when he started out in life ; it is well improved, and consists of
232 acres. Ttiey are the parents of two children, who are both married. The eldest,
Maiy Jane, was born May 19, 1843, and was married, Feb. 9, 1864, to Charles F., Bell, of
St. George, where she at present resides ; £unice Maria, the younger daughter, was born
Aug. 25, 1845, and was married, July 14, 1875, to David H. Hunter, of Waterdown,
Oounty of Wentworth. Mr. Edwanl Kitchen was the first settler to introduce a
threshing machine into this part of the county ; this occurred about 1835 or 1836.
The Kitchen family were among the first to introduce modern implements about the
year 1856.
LEMUEL B. KITCHEN, late farmer, 8outh Dumfries, was bom in that town-
ship on 22nd August, 1834, and is a son of Edward and Emma (Culloen) Kitchen.
His father, who has been a farmer all his days, was born in New Jersey, in October,
1798, and emigrated to Canada when eighteen years of a^, and is now living near
the Village of St. George. His mother, who dieil in 1869, was a native of Simcoe.
Norfolk CouLty, Ont., having been born there in 1802. After remaining in Norfolk
County, where they were married in 1822, they moved into the County of Brant
for permanent settlement. The subject of our sketch fouml in the Town of Brantford
a partner for life, in the person of Miss Julia HoU, who was born in Brantford un
#3rd March, 1838, she being daughter of Isaac and Lucinda HoU, the former deceased,
but the latter ^still living. The marriage took place 19th Octohei, 1859. Mrs. L.
B. Kitchen died on 16th November, 1880, and was a member of the Baptist Church.
She left behind two children — Frederick W., born 6th June, 1864, and Frank, born
September 30, 1867.
LOUIS B. D. LA PIERRE, farmer, Paris P 0., Township of South Dumfries, was
born in Gait, Oat., March 6, 1833, and moved to his present farm with his parents,
April 9, same year. His father, Louis B. D. Lapierre, who was at one time a ganger,
but subsequently engaged in coo)>ering business, was born in Montreal in 1798, and
his mother was a native of Herkimer County, State of New York, where she was born
in 1807. She came to Canada with her parents when very young, and settled near
Oalt, where she was married in 1822. Some time after they moved to where the son
now resides, when Mr. Lapierre commenced farming operations, and died there, Aug.
11, 1850. His wife is still living in Paris, Ont., and is again married. Her present
husband's name is Samuel Appleby. Louis B. D. Lapierre, the subject of this bio-
graphy, was married, June 21, 1869, to Anna Maria Markle, born in Niagara Township,
Dec. 25, 1846, and daughter of Abraham and Hannah Markle, both Canadians ; the
former of whom, who is still living, was born in 1798, and the latter was born May 5,
1800, died June 7, 188L Mr. and Mrs. Lapierre are members of the Methodist
Church, and have two children — Adele Flor-Ella, born June 9, 1870, and Maude Louie,
born Sept. 22, 1874. Mr. Lapierre has been a member of the Mastmic Order in Paris
dince 1878, has filled the office of President of the North Brant Agricultural
Society for three years, and has been a Director of the same society for several years.
He has also been elected Deputy Reeve eight years, and Waixlen of the county for the
year 1871, and has been Reeve one year, as well as School Trustee for three successive
yeai-s. At one time Mr. L. had a stora in Paris for two years, which he sold out to
Mr. Laing, and has met with generally good success. He is owner of 256^ acres of
land, where he resides, and excellent buildings.
W. B. D. LAPIERRE, farmer, Paris P.O., Township of South Dumfries, is a native
of Brant County, having been born there Dec. 21, 1847, and is a son of L. B. D. and
Mercer Lapierre. The subject of our sketch was united in marriage on Christmas Day,
1872, to Ruth J. Ames, daughter of Nelson and Ruth Ames, and bom in Biunt County,
668 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
June 19, 1852 ; she is a member of the Methodist Church. Their family consisted of
five children, two of whom survive, namely: Ada L., bom April 1 2, 1874; and Louis A.,
bom Dec. 27, 1876. In faiming operations Mr. Lapierre has proved himself worthy
of standing in the van of agriculturists, as a visit to his farm will amply testify.
There may be seen two hundred acres of beautiful land, well improved and cultivated,
and provided with good buildings, and this success is in the main due to the industry
and energy of both Mr. and Mrs. Lapierre, who are beloved and respected by all who
are acquainted with them, particularly in the vicinity in which they reside.
JOSEPH LATSHAW (deceased) was one of the oldest settlers in Brant County.
He was bom in York, State of Pennsylvania, and his wife (Mary Eiddel) was a
native of Carlisle, in the same State. They were married at Carlisle, 21st November,
1799, by Rev. Bobert Davidson, D.D. Subsequently they emigrated to Canada, and
at first settled in Waterloo County, Ontario, and afterwards moved into the County
of Brant, where they ended their days. Mr. Latshaw died 25th June, 1837, aged
58 years, and his wife died 12th July, 1849, aged 68 years. While in {he States he
was engaged in the millinery business, as well as during hia stay in Waterloo County,
but in Braut County he followed farming pursuits up to the last day of his life. Mr. and
Mrs. Latshaw, who were members of the Baptist Church, were the parents of thirteen
children, of whom only three are now living, viz. : Harriett, wife of Leonard Horr,
and residing in Dubuque, Iowa ; Catharine, widow of Alex. Spottiswoode, of South
Dumfries ; and Lucinda E., living at home on the old farm, llie deceased are Matilda,
Maria, Isabella, Adelina, Eliza A., Samuel H., Peter, Henry, John, and Christopher.
Mr. Latshaw met with a considerable amount of success during his lifetime, and at his
death left his family in gcxxl circumstances, and with a comfortable home.
PURVIS DOUGLAS LAWRASON (deceased > was born in Flamboro' Township
on the 16th December, 1814, died 2 1st October, 1880. He was the eldest son of John
Lawrason, one of the earliest settlers, who came to Dumfries about the year 1823, and
died about 1865. P. D. Lawrason was man'ied, on the 29th of January, 1837, to
Charlotte T., dauofhter of Peter and Lydia Shork, then of Beverly Township. Mr.
Shork came from Pennsylvania State in the year 1800, and settled in Trafalgar, County
of Halton, and afterwai-ds moved to Charlottevill»>, County of Norfolk, where he died
in July, 1863. Mrs. Shork died about 1873. To Mr. and Mrs. Lawrason have been
born six children : Sawh R., bora 29th September, 1838 ; Amelia E., born February
26, 1841, died December 28, 1858; George Mortimer, bom 28th September, 1843;'
Sydney B., bom 10th April, 1845 ; John P., born 20th October, 1851 ; and Victoria
R., bom December 4, 1855. Sarah married Thomas, son of Thomas Fawcett; George
M., married Mary, daughter of Wm. Rosebnigh, of Branch ton ; and Sydney B., mar-
ried Mellissa, daughter of John Coleman, of Harrisburg ; Victoria married Jas. H.
Fleming. Mr. P. D. Lawrason commenced life as a farmer in 1 838, on the north-east
quarter of Lot number 6, in the third concession of South Dumfries, consisting of fifty
acres, and that not all paid for ; but his energy and pluck were soon shown by the
purchase of another fifty acres, and so he kept accumulating, till at his death he was
owner of nearly 700 acres, free of debt ; he was an excellent farmer, and a great enemy
to Canada thistles and all other noxious weeds. In 1858, having rented his farm and
moved into the village, he entered into partnership with Mr. Bell, in the St. Greorge
Agricultural Works, where he remained five years, and to his energy, perseverance and
business tact is mainly to be attributed the success which has attended the said busi-
nes& At the end of the five years, he moved back on the farm, and in the begin-
ning of 1863 he was elected a Township Councillor by a large majority over his
opponent, Mr. Smith Wait ; he remained in that office for three years, at the end of
wMch he declined re-election, very much to the regret of the ratepayera. He was an
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 669
efficient and economical Councillor. Mr. Lawrason did not enjoy the benefits of an
extensive education, schools at that time being few and badly conducted, but he was
endowed with a large share of good common sense, and used his eyes to some purpose.
Two or three years previous to Lis death he again moved into the village, and built himself
a fine brick residence ; but, alas ! he was not permitted to enjoy it long, for in a short
time he was struck down by death after a few days' illness, and his remains were fol-
lowed to their last resting place in the Methodist Cemetery, on a Sunday afternoon,
by the largest concourse of people we ever have seen in St. George on a similar occa-
sion. Mr. Lawrason was a great favourite with the young : he was of a mild and
genial temperament; kind to the ixx>r, a staunch friend in adversity as well as in
prosperity, and a prominent and consistent member of the Methodist Church for a
great number of years.
DR. NATHANIEL E. MAINWARING, • physician, St. George, was bom -in the
Town of Lyme, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, State of Connecticut, in the year
1814. His father, N. E. Mainwaring, moved to Canada in 1821,* and settled in
•South Dumfries, was educated in the New York State University, and gradiiated
there in 1839, also attending lectures at Dartmouth ; was licensed by the old Medical
Board of the Government pf Canada, and has ever since prac'^ised in this county. In
1849 he married the daughter of Dr. £lam Stimson.
JAIRUS B. MAUS (deceased) was one of the typical pioneer farmers of South
Dumfries Township. He was bom January 20, 1816, in the State of New York,
And emigrated to Canada with his parents when he was a year old. They settled
first for six years in Gait, Onf., and then moved to the farm in the County of Brant,
where he died, March 1, 1876. His father^s name was Henry Y. S. Maus, and his
mother's name Aurillia, and be was a brother of John Maus, whose biography will be
found in this history. He was married three times — first on February 15, 1841, to
Catharine Lambertun, who died March 4, 1846 ; next to Janet Ann Tinling, on
February 15, 1849. She died January 14, 1850, and for his third wife he chose
Elizabeth Campbell, who was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, County of Northum-
berland, England, August 4, 1822, and is a daughter of Duncan and Elisabeth
Oampbell, whu emigrated to Canada in 1835, where they died at a ripe old age. This
last marriage was consummated February 6, 1821, and Mrs. Maus has survived her
husband. Mr, Maus ami his widow were adherents of the Methodist .Church. He
was a Justice of the Peace for many years, and followed agricultural purauits all his life,
at one time owning 500 acres of land, which he divided among his sons. Mr. Maus
had one son by his first wife, named Orrin, and by his second also one son, John W.
His third wife was the mother of six children, four ^of whom are now living;, viz.,
Henry S., Frankie, Wilfred J. and William Duncan. Henry S. is the third son,
And was bom December 20, 1851. He was united in marriage, March 8, 1879, with
Elizabeth Stewart, who was born in July, 1851, and to this union three children
have been bora — Jairus A., who came (into the world February 1, 1880 ; Marion
Isabella and Charles Stuart. Frances Elizabeth was married to J. D. Thompson, and
-iiAS one child living, named Mary Adela, and Wilfred J., the fourth son, who was
bora April 11, 1859, married December 3, 1879, Emma A. Kane, a native of Norwich,
Ont., where she was bora February 12, 1857. They have one child, Ethel A. G.,
bom July 8, 1881. Mr. Jairus B. Maus, the father and grandfather of this interesting
family, was a man deeply beloved and universally respected, and in his death Brant
County lost a good, useful man, and the community a kind, warm-hearted friend.
His widow is hale and hearty, and enjoying excellent health for an old lady.
JOHN MAUS, farmer. South Dumfries, was bom in Queenston, Ontc, September
4, 1818, and is a son of Henry Y. S. and Aurillia (Bunnell) Maus, who were
670 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
natives of New Turk State, and emigrated to Canada in 1818, settling fimt Sd
Queenston, tben in North Dumfries Township, and finally in South Damfries Town-
ship, where they remained the balance of their lives. The father, who had been a.
fanner, died in 1857, and the mother in 1858. They were married in the United
States, and were both members of the Methodist Church. John, of whom this sketch
is written, was married in March, 1 845, to Adah Wendover, who is a native of New
York State, and was bom Sept 4, 1821. She is a daughter of William and Eebecca
Wendover. Mr. and Mrs. Maus are members of the Methodist body. Mr. Man»
himself, who acquired a good education, has filled the office of Steward of that church.
He Is one of the old class of sturdy and enterprising pioneers of the County of Brant,
having arrived there in 1824, when it was but a comparative wilderness, and he is.
now the haf>py owner of 240 acres of well cultivated land, and excellent buildings
thereon. Mr. and Mrs. Maus are the parents of nine cirldren, six of whom survive,,
viz., Luthera, John H., William, Ann, Lydia K. tLtd b^Uanl.
JAMES McKENZIE, farmer, St. George P. O., was born July 1, 1847, and ia the
son of Duncan and Elizabeth McKenzie. His father was bom near Johnstown, ^^ew
York State, October 15, 1804, and he died April 27, 1882. His mother was bom
near Glasgow, Scotland, August 6, 1814, and died June 17, 1879. Mr. McKenzie-
came to Canada in the year 1831, and Mrs. McKenzie came here about 1822.
They were married in Flamboio', where he located for a time and carried on the busi-
ness of waggon-making. He went from there to Beverly Township. He sold out
there in 1855 and moved to Ingham County, Michigan, where he bought and worked
500 acres of land until 1864^ when he moved to Dumfries Township on the death of
his brother John, which occurred September 15, 1864, on Lot 13, 2nd concession.
James McKenzie was .married September 21, 1881, to Agnes Mullin, daughter of
Wm. and Eliza Mullin, of Dumfries Township ; she was bom March 4, 1852. They
have one child, Charlotte Eliza, bom August 21, 1882. Mr. McKenzie is a member of
the Baptist Church, and his wife is a Presbyterian. He acquired a common school
education only, but has made the best use possible of it. John McKenzie, the original
owner of the homestead, was bom in 1797 in the Highlands of Scotland. Eariy in
the present century his family came to America and settled in the State of New York,,
and in 1831 removed to Canada, and located on the farm in Dumfries. He was in
religion a Pcesbyterian, and an active and energetic man, taking great .interest in any
measure where the welfare of the township was involved. He never married. He died
universally regretted.
GEORGE McLaughlin, farmer, Brantford P.O., was bom 21st of July, 1837,
and is the son of Samuel and Jane Mclaughlin. Mr. Samuel McLaughlin was bom
in the County of Donegal, Ireland, in Augu&t, 1800, and died June 14, 1876. He-
came to America and settled in New York about the year 1818. He remained ther»
until 1828, and then movfd into Canada, and locate^l in Dumfries Township. He
was married to Jane Johnson, who was bom in County Down ; she came to America
with her parents when she was in her infancy. They first settled in New Brunswick,
and afterwards moved to the State of Massachusetts. She is still living, and is quite-
hale and hearty. Tliey were the parents of twelve children, seven of whom survive.
Mr. George McLaughlin, who lives on Lot 13, 1st concession, was the third son. He
was mamed December 29, 1863, to Margaret M., daughter of Ensign Buck, of Brant-
ford Township, who came to Brant County about the year 1820-21. Mr. and Mrs.
McLaughlin are the parent^ of six children, five of whom are alive, viz., George W.,
bom October 2, 1861; Annie, born July 15, 1868 ; Ferman, born August 26, 1875 -
Edward, bom July l.T, 1872; and Samuel Wellington, bom May 5, 1876; Edwey
(deceased) was bom February 1st, 1867, and died August 27, lt?67. Mr. McLau«;hlii^
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 671
acquired an education in a rural school, and has made good use of it. He has succaeded
very well in life, and has an excellent faim of 112 acres, which he is working ; it is
already well improved.
DANIEL McPHERSON, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, was born in the
County of Brant, Febniary 24, 1 829, and is a son of John and Ann McPherson. He
was married April 21, 1853, to Christa Campbell, who was bom in Kew York State,
in 18*27 ; she is a daughter of Duncan and Anna Campbell, natives of Scotlamd Mr.
and Mrs. McPherson are members of the Presbyterian Church, and are the parents of
seven children, five surviving, viz., Anna, Margaret J., Christa Ann, John and Duncan.
Mr. McPherson has filled the office of Councillor for South Dumfries Township for five
years, and has met with good success as a farmer, an occupation he has followed all his
life. At first he bought 100 acres of land in the Township of Beverly, County of
Wentworth, where he remained 19 years, when he moved into the County of Brant
2iDd purchased the farm he now occupies, consisting of 150 acres, in a good state of
cultivation, and well improved.
JOHN McPHERSON, farmer, near Paris, was bom in New York, 17th March,
1804, and is a son of Daniel and Catharine McPherson, the former a native of Scot-
land and a farmer, and the latter a native of Albany, New York, They were married
in New York, and died there. John McPherson was married 27th March, 1829, in
New York, to Anna McPherson, who was bom there on Christmas Day, 1806, and
emigrated with his young wife to Canada in the year of their wedding, and settled on
the spot where he now resides. Mrs. McPhenH>n, who, with her husband, was a member
of the Presbyterian Church, died 14th November, 1881. Mr. McPherson, who was
educated at a common school, has been engaged in agricultural pursuits all his life, and
met with success. He has seen in his day considerable changes in the land of his
adoption. The present Town of Paris consisted, in 1829, of about one log-house ;
Holmes' fiour-mill w^ts just being constructed ', there was no church or school-house
in the neighbourhood ; indeed, it was but a comparative wilderness. Mr. McPherson
had a family of seven children, sijc of whom are living, viz., Daniel, Malcolm, John,
Alexander, Duncan and Christina ; Archie, who was bom 13th Sept, 1845, died about
the year 1 848.
ANDREW McRAG, farmer, South Dumfries, was born where he now resides, 30th
Nov., 1848, and is a son of Murdoch and Ann McRae, natives of Scotland, who emi-
grated to Canada in 1 835, and settled on the farm above mentioned, which consists of
100 acres of well improved land. The father died 22nd March, 1861, and the mother
on 30th August, 1877. Andrew, our subject, was married 29th Sept, 1871, to
Isabella Robinson, who was bom in the County of Waterloo, in May, 1847. She was
a daughter of John and Isabella Robinson, the former of whom was a native of Eng-
land, and the latter of Scotland. To Mr. and Mrs. McRac, who are members of the
Presbyterian Church, were bom two boys and two girls, viz., Isabella Y., Murdoch and
Ann (twins), and John D. Mr. McRae had a substantial common school education,
and has been so far blessed with prosperity in life. He has a nice comfortable home,
and is happy with his little family gathered around him in peace and love.
ROBERT MENZIE, farmer, who has been a resident of Brant County for forty-
eight years, and has engaged in agricultural pursuits all his life, is a native of Mont-
gomery County, State of New York, where he was born 16th August, 1806. He is a
son of Robert and Ann Menzie, natives of Scotland, where they were married, and
whence they emigrated, 4th July, 1802, to New York. Both died there, the father
about the year 1848, and the mother at the age of 66. Robert Menzie, our subject,
was married 4th March, 1830, to Catharine McPherson, who was born in Genessee
County, State of New York, 28th June, 1807. She was a daughter of Malcolm and
672 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
Cfaristina McPherson, who both died in Genessee County. Mr. and Mrs. Menzie are
both members of the Presbytenan Chuich, and are the parents of nine children, of
whom seven survive, viz : Anna £., Christina, Catharine, Martha, Jennette, Maggie
4Uid Mary. John, who was born 20th March, 1836, died 27th August, 1877, and
Ji^colm, who was born 3rd June, 1349, died 17th August, 1850. Mr. Menzie has met
^ith much success as a farmer, and lives with his wife on the farm hj first purchased,
-and which is in a high state of cultivation.
THOMAS MITCHELL, farmer, Township of South Dumfries, was bom in North
Dumfries l^ownship, 12th April, 1840, and is the son of John and Sarah Mitchell,
the former of whom has been a farmer all his days, and was a native of Ayr, Soot,
land, having been bom there, 12th August, 1811. He is still among the living, and
resides on the farm he took up in the year of the Rebellion (1837). His wife, Sarah,
was also bom in Scotland in 1806. They emigrated to Canada — the father in 1834,
and the mother in 1836 — and were married in Gait, Waterloo County. Thomas
Mitchell our subject, was united in marriage, 26th December, 1865, with Jennie
Torrance, a native of Wigtonshire, Scotland. She was bom 7th Dec 1843, and is a
daughter of Thomas Torrance, who came to Canada in 1850, and was drowned in the
Grand Eiver, in March, 1852. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are members of the Presby-
terian Church, and have found in their lifetime that fortune's smile has favoured
them. When Mr. M., who received a good general and mathematical education, first
entered the arena of farm life, he purchased 85 acres of improved land, the build-
ings on which were all puc on after coming into his possession. He and his sister
£llen are the only two living representatives of his fatiier's family.
HEMliY MOYLE, retired farmer, Paris. Heniy Moyle, Senr., deceased, the
father of our subject and a native of England, settled in the Township of Brantford,
in 1837, purchasing Lots Nos. 20 and 21 in the first concession, on which he resided
until his death. His sons, Henry and William Moyle, lived on the same farm .until
the fall of 1882, when Henry purchased property in the Town of Paris, where he now
resides
ABSALOM MXJMA, farmer, Ayr P.O., Township of South Dumfries,* is a native of
the County of Brant, Ont., having been bom December 23, 1830, in the Tillage of St.
<leorge, and is a son of Christian and Anna Muma. The former was bom August 28,
1779, in Pennsylvania, and died in Canada, July 12, 1863 ; the latter was bom in the
State of Kew Jersey, in 1789, and died in Canada, June 8, 1860. Mr. Muuia^ Sr.,
^emigrated to Canada on Feb. 1, 1800, and his wife tliat was to be came on horseback
-with her brother-in-law in 1808, and they were united in marriage, Feb. 1, 1813, near
Dundas, Ont., where they remained several years, when they moved to St. George, in
-which village they resided until 1833. In that year they went on the farm known as
the Shannon Farm, and resided there till 1839. Finally, in that year they moved
tto the farm where Absalom and his family now reside, and rested there the remainder
of their days. Absalom Muma, the subject of our sketch, was married, June 20, 1865,
to Anna Lawrason, who was born in St. George Village, April 1, 1830, and was a
•daughter of Robert and Margaret Lawrason. Mr, and Mrs. Muma, who are adherents
of the Methodist Church, are the parents of three children — George Bertram, Margaret
Ann and Clara Augusta. Mr. Muma, who acquired a thorough common school educa-
tion, by industiy has proved very successful in his farming operations. He is owner,
at the present time, of 186 acres of improved land, with substantial buildings thereon.
He also owns, in Ayr, a large two-story brick house and three acres of land, with good
outbuildings.
MICHAEL MUMA, Township of South Dumfries, was bom April 4, 1818, in the
•State of New York, twelve miles east of Buffalo, and is a son of Jacob and Susan Muma,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 673
the former of whom was born in Virginia in 1776, died Sept. 27, 1876, and the .latter
was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1800, died Augiist, 1842. They were married,
in 1816, and came to Canada early in 1821, settling on Lot 7, 2nd concession South
Dumfries Township. They were the parents of twelve children, Michael^ our subject,
being the only one now living. He was married Jan. 20, 1841, to Elizabeth, daughter
of Thomas and Nancy Matthews, who came from Livingstone County, State of New
York, to Dumfries Township, about the month of Feb., 1831. Mr. and Mrs. Michael
Muma are the parents of ten children, eight of whom survive, viz., Susan, Nelson,
Charles, Mary, Edgar, Alfred, Louisa and Franklin. Melvin and William are deceased.
Nelson married, Mov. 12, 1867, Mary Ann, daughter of George and Charlotte Starr,
and their family numbers six children, all residing in Buiford Township. Charles
Muma was married, April 2, 1872, to Charlotte Eutherford, daughter of George and
Charlotte Rutherford, of Orillia. Edgar married, Feb. 2, 1876, Bosetta M., daughter
of Charles and Bachel Wilber, of Dumfries Township. Louisa was united in marriage,
Jan. 28. 1879, with Whitney Wilber, and Alfred married, Dec. 20, 1882, Victoria,
daughter of James and Jane Coleman, of Beverly Township, Ont ; they are living on
the homestead. Michael Muma came into Dumfries Township when scarcely three
years of age, and was witness of, and fully experienced the toil and hardships inci-
dental to pioneer life in Canada. He and his family are members of the Baptist Chui-ch,
Hud are highly respected and much beloved by all who know them.
THOMAS MURRAY, farmer, residing now in Paris, is a native of Norfolk Co.,
where he was born Nov. 3rd, 1832. His parents, Thomas and Rosanna (McArdle)
Murray, were natives of Ireland, where they were married and emigrated to Canada
in 1831, and settled at first at Normandale, Long Point, for six years, when they
moved to Paris, in 1837, where they died, the father in 1838, and the mother in 1850.
He was a blacksmith by trade, and both were members of the Roman Catholic
Church. On their coming to Paris in 1837, there was a distillery, owned by Norman
Hamilton, and a woollen factory, of which Totten was proprietor. The river was
crossed by one wooden bridge, on the Governor's Road. There was also a flour mill,
owned by Hamilton Thomas, and run by Tenant. Thomas, our subject, married, in
1860, Maggie Johnson, who was bom in Toronto, in 1840, and was a daughter of
William and Ann Johnson. Mr. Murray and his wife both embrace the Roman
Catholic faith, and the former, having received a fair common school education, has
been engaged in farming aiid stock-raising and dealing. He is owner of one hundred
acres of land. Mr. and Mrs. Murray have six children, viz., Mary, John, Anna,
Maggie, Thomas and Helen.
CHARLES NIXON, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom March 29,
1818, in Grimsby Township, County of Lincoln, Ontario. He is the son of Robert
and Elizabeth Nixon, who were also natives of Canada where they died ; the
father in December, 1853, and the mother in 1856. Mr. Nixon, Senr., was engaged in
farming throughout life. Charles Nixon left Lincoln County in 1839, and came to the
County of Brant, where he was married, Oct 23 of that year, to Eliza Grifi^, who was
born May 24, 1820, and died May 24, 1844. She was a member of the Methodist
body, and was the mother of two children, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Nixon
was next united in marriage, Jan. 1, 1846, with Mary R Carson, a native of West-
minster, County of Middlesex, Ontario, and daughter of John Carson, and this union
lias been blessed with eleven children, seven of whom survive, viz., Emily E., Sarah F.,
Henry R., Julia J., Beatrice L., Charles F. and Netta A. ; Prisdlla, Alice M., John
C. and Frederick are deceased. Mr. Nixon has been Recording Steward in the Methodist
Ohurch for fourteen years, and has filled the office of School Trustee for a considerable
period. He has proved himself by industry to be a successful farmer, and has pros-
674 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
pered well since com-ng to the Conaty of Brant, as witness the ezoellent farm he now
possesses, 143 acres of improved land, with good buildings, complete.
P. O'CONNOR, retired, Paris P.O., is a son of Patrick O'Connor, who was bom in
Ireland about 1800. He ^rew up in his native country, and married Bridget SalliTtn.
They emi<{rated to Canada in 1830, locating at Paris, where he died in 1832; his
widow survived until 1858. Their children were three in number, viz., John (deceased),
Patrick and Bartholomew ; the latter now a resident of l^^^najMi^ XJ.S. Our subject was
born Dncemlier 15, 1827, and since his infancy has been a resident of Brant County,
residing near Paris, where for a number of years he was a prominent grain dealer.
While a resident of Paris he served repeated Iv in the Town Council and in the School
Board. In 1879 he was appointed Justice of the Peace. His wife is the third daughter
of the late Benjamin Yeo, a native of £ngland.
DANIBL O'NEAIL, retired farmer, and residing in the Township of South Dam-
fries, is a native of Ireland, where he was born 12th August, 1797. His parents were
Charles and Mary O'Neail, who lived and died on the " old sod." Daniel, our subject,
emigrated to Canada in 1830, and settled in South Dumfries, on the spot wfa^re he now
lives. He married 30th April, 1833, Eleanor Davidson, bom in Scotland 9th Oct,
1811, and a daughter of Thomas and Margaret Davidson, who all emigrated to Canada
in 1831, and settled in Dumfries} Township, where the old couple died. Eleanor
(Mrs. D. O'Neail) is still living, and hale and hearty. Mr. and Mrs. O'Neail, who are
adherents of the Catholic Church in Paris, had a family of nine children, five of whom
are now living, viz., Charles, Thomas, Mary, James and Eleanor. Those deceased are
Margaret, boin 21st Sept, 1837, died 15th March, 1882 ; Isabella, bom 1 9th Sept,
1844, died 23rd July, 1867 ; William, bora 5th May, 1849, died 30th March, 1856;
and Daniel, bom 18th January, 1852, died 4th February, 1852. Mr. O'Neail has
been a veiy useful member of society during the many years he has lived. For nine-
teen years he acted as School Trustee, and is a Justice of the Peace at the present
time. He has filled the office of President of the Agricultural Society, and has been
five years Vice-President of the County of Brant Insurance Company. When Mr.
O'Neail first settled in the county, he bought 120 acres, and at one time he was owner
of 680 acres. Latterly he sold 150 acres and distributed the rest, till he has now but
75 acres; he has how»iver an ample competency for himself and wife, who are in
excellent health and spirits considering their age, and are now ei^joying that repose
which a long life of toil and industry justly merits.
DANIEL OSBORNE, farmer, St. George P.O., was born in Kent, England, Nov.
25th, 1825. He was married to Maria, daughter of John and Elizabeth Oliver, of Sussex,
England, on the 3l8t May, 1847, and they oameto Canada in the spring of 1849, living
for the first six months in Brantford ; they then moved to " The Plains," between
Brantford Hnd Paris, where they lived until the spring of 1863, when he moved into
Dumfries, and rented the farm owned by Robert Christie, father of the Hon. David
Ghri&tie. In the year 1870 he purchased the farm, consisting of 333^ acres; it is
regarded as the best farm in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Osborne are the parents of seven
children, all of whom are living. Their names, according to seniority, are Walter,
William, Thomas, Daniel, Annie, Elizabeth, Fannie. Walter was married, Nov. 7Ui,
1871, to Mary Dymond, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Dymond, of Brantford City.
They are the parents of three children, Edwiird Franklin, bom Nov. 21st, 1873 ;
William James, bom Sept. 5th, 1875 ; and Ella M;iy, bom May 4th, 1877, William,
the second son, was married Jan. 15th, 1873, to Ruth, daughter of James Greenfield,
of Brantford Township. They have had one child named Charles Norman, bom in
Dec. 1878. Daniel was married Feb. 15th, 1882, to Sarah M. Peirce, daughter of
William and Elizabeth Peirce, of Bi-antford Annie was married on the 27th of Feb.»
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 675
1879, to Robert fiurbidge of St. €^i^, at present residing in Paris ; to them has
btfen born one child, Frank Osborne, bom 18th Sept., 1881. The Osborne family are
all members of the Baptist Church. They have all had a fair education given them,,
and are all doing very well in life.
WILLIAM PAriERSON, dentist, Paris, was bom in Eeston, Berwickshire, Scot-
land, and is a son of Waite and Kachel Patterson, also natives of Scotland. They
came to Canada in 1832, and settled in Norfolk County, but removed in 1836 to South
Dumfries. His father died December 29, 1869, and his mother died November 30,
1880. Our subject himself was four years old when coming to the land of his adoi»-
tion; he married, on November 23, 1852, Isabella Kerr, second daughter of the late
Captain Kerr, near Brantford, who died April 4, 1854. Mr. Patterson's second wife
was Maria McVeigh, whom he married December 11, 1856, in St. Catharines, Ont.
Mr. Patterson and his present wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he
has been a Town Councillor for foui years past For nineteen years he has success-
fully practised as a dentist, and to qualify as such he passed his examination in
Toronto. Previous to this he carried on a dry goods business, and has been moder-
ately successful in life. His family consisted of nine children, six of whom survive —
William W., John M., Albert A., May £., George R and Frank H.
JOHN PETRIE, farmer, South Dumfries, was born in Stony Creek, County of
Wentworth, Ont, July 2, 1841, and is a son of John and Phoebe Petrie, the former
of whom WHS a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and the latter of Armagh County,
Ireland. He was bom January 2, 1802, and she was bom about the year 1812.
They emigrated to Canada very no»rly at the same time, and were married at
Hamilton, Ont, in 1840. From there they moved to South Dumfries Township,
where Mr. Petrie died in 1850. His widow is at present residing with her oldest
son. John, the subject of this sketch, was united in msiriage on Christmas Day,
1873, with Aurillia Cassady, daughter of Daniel and Hannah Cnssiidy, who are
natives of Brant County. Aurilla was born in Oakland, May 5, 1852. Mr. and Mrs.
Petrie, who are members of the Presbyterian Church, are the parents of four children —
Jane, bom Sf*pteml>er 12, 1874; John A., bom April 28, 1876; Daniel C, bom
October 5, 1878 ; and Mary H., b'^m June 11, 1882. Mr. Petrie is at present filling
the office of School Trustee. Inheriting from his father 100 acres ot land, he has
expended a considerable amount of industry and labour in improvements, and he has
now an excellent well cultivated farm, with good substantial buildings on it, and has
met with good success generally.
ALEXANDER PHI! IPS, farmer, St George P.O., was bom March 27, 1838, in
the TowuHhip of Ancaster, County of Wentworth. He is the sou of John and Mar-
gaiet Philips, who came from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in the year 1837, and settled in
Ancaster. where he farmed until the spring of 1854, when he moved into Brant County
and settlfd on Lot 6, 1st concession of South Dumfries, the farm on which his son
Alexander now lives. Mrs. Philips died in Ancaster on the 20th of July, 1851, and
Mr. Philips died on the 18th of Ausfust, 1856, in South Dumfries. Alexander Philips
was married on the 7th of May, 1862, to Sophronia, daughter of Henry and Margaret
Shuert, of Brantford Township. They are the parents of h\e children, three of whom
siirvive. Their names and ages are given according to seniority : Arthur, born 22nd
of June, 1864 ; Oeorge Marshal, born 23rd December, 1867 ; and Mary Jane, bom
28th of August, 1876. The names of the deceased are John, who died on the 6th of
September, 1866 ; and Alexander, born 19th of November, 1871, died on the 10th
of September, 1872. Mr. Philips obtained an ordinary rural school education, but has
put it to the best possible use. He has a nice home, and is respected by all who know
him.
676 " aisTOHv of brant county.
JOHN RICHAKDSON, cheese m&nuf&cturer, St. George P.O., was bom in York-
shire, EngUnd, Septembei* 3rd, '.832, and is the son of Peter aud Eliubeth Richardson,
both of whom are living ia Xortb Frodinf;ham, Yorkshire, Engluid. Mr. Peter Rich-
ardsoQ is in his seventy-Dinth year, and Mrs. Richardson in her Bixtf-ninth jvar. John
Richardson came to Canada in March, 1856, and located near lagetsoll, in Oxford
County, where he was engaged in farming; he remained there until April of 1866,
when he removed to St. Geoi-ge in Dumfries Township, and started the ])ioneer cheese
factory of Brant County. The factory ia situated on Lot 7, concession 2 of Soath Pum-
Iries, and is within the corporation limits of St. George Village. He is among the
largest cheese producers of this county. The production has run as high as 140 tons
in one year. At this time Mr. Richardson was running two factories. The quantity
of cheese produced by the St. George factory averages between 80 and 90 tons per
annual. Mr. Richardson was married November 25tb, 1861, to Mary, daughter of
William Philips of Uxfbrd. Mr. Philips came from Devonshire, England, about the
year 1857, and settled in Oxford County ; he died in 1864. Mi. and Mrs. Richardson
am the parents of four children, two of whom survive ; their names are : WiJluun
Robert, burn March 23rd, 18C7, and Peter ThomMS, born May 25th, 1873. The n*mes
of the deceased are; Peter, bom August 11th, 1865, died November 16th, 1671 ;
and Eliiabeth Ann, bom April 23rd, 1870, died November 24th, 1871. Mr.
Richardson has also an adopted son named John Robert, born in 1865 ; he is the son of
his bnither Robert, who died in England. Mr. and Mra. Richardson are members of
the Methodist Church, of which he is a Trustea He had a limited education given
him, but has done remarkably well in business, and has been very successful otherwise.
Apart from his cheese interests, he is owner of 200 acres of well improved land.
JOHN RICKERT (deceased) was one of the representative pioneer farmers of
South Dumfries Towusliip, having settled in it in 1820. He was a native of the
Township of Bertie, in what was then known as Niagara District, having been bom
there on June 35, 1798. His parents, John and Mary Rickert, were born in Pennsyl-
vania, and emigrated to Canada, settling at Niagara, where they reaiatned during
the rest of their lives. They died about the year 1848. John Rickert, qur subject,
was married, about the yeer 1820, to Orpah, daughter of Benjamin White ; she was
a native of New York State, bom September 7, 1797, died September 28, 1872.
John Rickert was a member, of the Tunker Church, and prospered well in hrming
during his life. At his death, which occurred September 6, |878, he owned 200 acres
of improved land. He received a good common school tnining. Mr. and Mrs. Rickert
were the parents of seven children, of whom four are now living, viz., Thomas B.,
Chapin G., John W., and William B. The deceased are : Mary, born December 18,
1827, died May 17, 1862, leaving behind one daughter; Rachina, bom May U, 1838.
died in October, 18KS, one son surviving her; and Elizabeth H., born May 14, 1840,
died Feb. 13, 1868. Thomas B. was bom January 7, 1821, and married, June 7, 1848,
Phrebe C Fitch, who was bom in 1829. They h«vea family of six children. Uhapin
1823, married, March 19, 1846, Eliza C. Waterhouse, who was
$23, died March 19, 1858, leaving two children behind,
rraer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in County Down,
I January, 1808, and is son of John and Mary Robb, also natives
migrated to Canada in 1826, and settled in FUmboro' West, Ont.,
some time. From there they went to Toronto, where the father
r 1843. The mother died in Watertown about 1863. John
this sketch, followed the occupation of bis &tber, namely, that
ried, January, 1639, Mary Ironsides, who was bom in Scotland
! daughter of Alex, and Mary Ironsides, who came to Canada and
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 677
died there. Mr. and Mrs. Robb are members of the Presbyterian Churchy and are the
parents of nine children — Mary Ann, Isabella, Hannah, William, Martha, Jane, Ellen,
Elsie and Lizzie. Mr. Kobb has lived on the farm he owns for forty years, and has
been prosperous. He first bought 1 00 acres of land in Flamboro' West, which he sold
and purchased 1 75 acres, where he lives, and this he has augmented from time to
time, till his faim now covers about 300 acres.
W. J. ROBINSON, importer of staple and fancy dry goods, Paris, was bom in the
Township of Vaugban, York County, Ont., on Jan. 17, 1850. He is a son of Alex-
ander and Mary Robinson, natives of Ireland, but who emigrated to Canada in 1837,
and settled in Yaughan Township, where Mr. Robinson, Senr., died in 1856 ; Mrs.
Robinson is still living there. William J. Robinson, our subject, was united in mar-
riage, Aug. 11, 1875, with Emma R Jackson, a native of England, bom August 27,
1850, and a daughter of Thomas and Mary Jackson. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are mem-
bers of the Canada Methodist Church, and have a family of three : George R, born June
9, 1877 ; William R, born Aug. 10, 1879 ; and Florence E., bom July 15, 1882. Mr.
Robinson, who has met with much prosperity, and is a thorough, straightforward
business man, has been engaged in the dry goo«ls business ever since he was twelve
years of age. He acted in the {capacity of clerk until 1879, when he entered business
on his own account in Paris, in his present store.
DAYID B. RONALD, farmer, in the Township of South Dumfries, was born on
the farm where he and his family now reside, Oct. 4, 1842. His parents, William and
Janet Ronald, were natives of Scotland, from which country they set out to seek their
fortune in Canada about the year 1842, and at once settled iu South Dumfries Town-
ship, where the father, who had followed farming all his life, died Dec 10, 1863, and
the mother on April 26, 1850. David, of whom we write, was mariied, June 13, 1867,
to Anna Richardson, a native of the United States, having been born Jan. 12, 1846.
I She is a daughter of George and Elizabeth Richardson, who emigrated from Scotland to
the United States, and th^;nce into Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Ronald, who are members of
the Presbyterian Church, have a family of seven children — William C, James B.,
Ellen, Hugh A., Arthur, Robert H. and Ann. Mr. Ronald has met with considerable
]irosperity in his vocation in liie, and is now the owner of 100 acres of improved land,
on which he resides.
JOHN ROSE (deceased) was one of the typical representative pioneer farmers, and
one of the oldest settlers of Brant County, having lived for over half a century on the
old home farm, on the Grand River, where his son Robert at present resides. Mr. Rose
was a native of Inverness- shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1800; he died, Nov.
12, 1879. His wife was also bom in Inverness-shire in 1798, and died Sept. 29, 1865.
They were married in New York State, Aug, 28, 1828, and came to Brant County in
1830. They were meuibers of St Andrew's Church, Gait, of which Mr. Rose had been
a Deacon for fourteen years, and was filling that oiKce at the time of his death. Their
family consisted of three children, two of whom are now living — William and Robert.
William lives on the farm left him by his father, and Robert, as before mentioned, is
on the home farm. When the late Mr. Rose first made Canada his home, he purchased
170 acres, which he possessed at the time of his death. When he bought, there were
only about five acres under cultivation, and the dwelling house was but a small log
cabin ; when he died, he left behind him, as a monument of industry and assiduity, a
fine well improved farm, with excellent buildings, and everything bearing evidence of
prosperity and plenty. When Mr. and Mrs. Rose died. South Dumfries Township lost
4wo of its most useful, respected and beloved citizens. Mr. Rose is buried in the new
cemetery, Gait, where a handsome monument has recently been erected to him. Wil-
liam, the eldest son, was bom July 28, 1833, and Robert, April 3, 1835. John
(deceased) was bom Aug, 11, 1829, died Oct. 17, 1853.
678 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
THOMAS RYALL, Dumfries Township, may well be ranked among the study
veterans who dared to brave the hardships to be encountered in opening up a new
country. He was bom in Ireland on January 14, 1817, his parents* names bein^
Edward and Grcce Kyall, the former a native of Cashel neighbourhood, and the latter of
Waterford City, Ireland, and were married in Ireland. In 1831 they c^imeto Canada
and settled in Oro Township, where Mrs. Ryall died some two years atter. Thomas
was married in 1852 to Sarah Hass, bom in Englan i about the year 1827, and are
both members of the Church of England. Their family consists of eight children,
«even of whom are living, namely, Susan, at home ; Edward, Thomas, Henry, Frank,
Herbert and Septimus. Mr. Eyall has been engaged in the gi-ain and coal trade, as
well as insurance business. He erected two lai^ grain stores and several d we ling
houses at Paris Station when the railroad station was built ; he also established the
eoal trade of Paris, and has been representing leading insurance companies for the last
30 years ; is a Justice of the Peace of Brant County, License Commissioner, Ac, Resi-
dence on Oak Avenue, a quarter of a mile north of the railway station. Mr. Ryall has
also held a Captaincy in the Militia of the County of Brant, his father being an old
pioneer of Oro Township, a Magistrate, and Captain in Ist Simcoe Militia.
JAMES H. SCARF was born in Dumfries Township on 23rd August, 1840, being
41 son of Christopher B. and Margaret Scarf, who were married in England, the former
Ijorn on November 13, 1798, and the latter on October 18, 1800, both in County of
Norfolk, England. In 1830 they emigrated to Canada and settled in Brant County,
where they resided until Mr. ScarTs death, which occurred on September 28, 1867.
Mrs. Scarf still survives, and resides with her son James in Paris. The subject of
this sketch was married, March 4th, 1873, to Rosanna Mc Michael, who is a daughter
of John and Matilda McMichael, and was bom in Dumfries Township in 1847 ; she
id a member of the Baptist Church. One child has been born to them named Mag^e
M., who was bom on December 13, 1876. Mr. Scarf took the census, in 1881, in the
western part of Dumfries Township. He has been suoce^ful in life, owning property
in Paris, where he resides, as well as a farm in the township in a high state of culti-
vation, and possessed of good substantial buildings.
HENRY SCHULER, proprietor of the Paris Stoneware Works, was born in
Illinois on 25th Sept., 1842, and is a son of Wendlin and Susanna (Brandt) Schuler,
who were married in Canada. The former was a native of Baden, Germany, and
died in Saugeen, Ont., in 1856, and the latter, who resides now in Elast Zorra, Ont.
was bom in the State of Ohio in 1823, and married the second time, Harman
Schmidt, who died in St. Louis in 1874. Mrs. Schuler*s first husband had been a
school teacher for twenty-five years, in New Hamburg, Ont., where he was keeping a
hotel about the time of his death. The subject of this sketch was united in mar-
riage, on 21st November, 1861, to Mary Ann Reynest, who was bom in IVris, Ont.,
on the 6th Dec. 1845, and they are both members of the Church of Enghuid. Mr.
Schuler acquired a good common school education, and engaged in the pottery business
in 1868, which he changed into the manu&u;ture of stonewnre in 1873. Tlus he has
been proprietor of for the past ten years, and has met with generally good snocess.
There are nine children in the family, seven of whom survive, viz., Anna, Emma,
Edward, John, Frederick, James and Lincoln. The parents of Mr. S. had eight diil-
dren, of whom six are now living, Henry being the oldest, and of them only he and
his brother Wendlin reside in the County of Brant.
JOHN SCOTT, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in Scotland 14th
Feb., 1824, and is a son of George anid Cecilia Scott, also natives of Scotland, and
who emigrated to Brant County in 1826, where they settled on the farm now owned
by their son John. The father, who was a farmer most of his life, died Ist March,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 679
1881, and the mother died about the year 1837. John Scott, our subject, whs united
in marriage, 2nd May, 1851, with Margaret Deans, daughter of Matthew and Mary
Deans, who emigrated from their natal soil, Scotland, to Brant County, where they
died. Mr. and Mrs. Scott, who are members of the Presbyterian Church, have had
s, family of seven children, of whom five survive, viz., Mary H., Agnes C. (wife of
Walter Murray), Bobina W., Allan and Mag^e E. Those deceased are Robert, bom
23rd Sept., 1860, died 30th April 1862 ; John G., born 30th Oct., 1867, died 20th
Xov., 1874. Mr. Scott has prospered well in his farming operations, and is now the
owner of 285 acres, nearly all under cultivation, and having good, comfortable build-
ings thereon.
WILLIAM SEWELL, farmer, South Dumfries, is a native of Westmorelandshire,
England, where he was bom 10th January, 1827, and is a son of John and Ann
8ewell, who lived and died in England. Ilie former had been a farmer all his life.
William, our subject, emigrated to Canada in September, 1856, and first settled in
Paris. Ho has sJways resided in the County of Brant. On 4th October, 185b, he
married Jane Hamilton, daughter of Thomas and Ann Hamilton, and a native of
Wigtonshire, Scotland, where she was bom in 1837. She and her parents emigrated
to Canada in 1856, and settled in the County of Brant; Mr. Hamilton is still Gving.
To Mr. and Mrs. Sewell, who are members of the Presbyterian Church, have been
bom nine children, eight of whom survive, viz., Ann J.» Jane, John, Jhomas, Wil-
liam, Arthur, Agnes and Susan. Mr. Sewell, who received a good common school
training, was elected to the Township Council in 1882, and was re-elected by accla-
mation in 1883. He at one time bought a share in a saw mill in Burford, and
<x>ntinued in this for six years. He then turned his attention to farming pursuits in
Burford, and subsequently in the Township of Brantford. Finally he moved into the
Townsb'P of South Dumfries, and purchased 100 acres of well-improved land, with
good buildings, where he has now lived for thirteen years. All the buildings that are
on the farm he erected himself, and there is every evidence that prosperity has fol-
lowed fast in the footsteps of industry.
JOHN SHANNON (deceased) was one of the pioneer farmers of South Dumfries
Township. He was born in Copetown, Ont., 31st August, 1806, and his parents,
David and Jane Shannon, who carried on farming occupations, were natives of New
Brunswick, from which Province they moved to Copetown, where they resided until
the death of David. The widow aud family then moved into Dumfries Township,
where she died. John, of whom this sketch is written, was united in marriage, 6th
December, 1837, with Francis Goldring, daughter of James and Sarah Goldring.
natives of England. Frances was bom in that country, 12th Februai^, 1817, and
emigrated to Canada with her parents in 1832, when they settled in Toronto. Mr.
Shannon was an adherent of the Methodist Church, and his widow is a member of the
same body. He was educated at a common school, and when he started in life he
bought 100 acres of land, which he again sold, and with the proceeds bought the 100
acres on which the widow and famUy now reside. He was looked upon in his life-
time as one of the best and most successful farmers in Brant County. Mr. and Mrs.
Shannon had a family of ten children, seven of whom survive, viz , Sarah J., wife of
Wm. Laughlan ; Ellen, wife of David Curry ; James, married ; John, married ;
Frances A.; Joseph, married ; and George. Edward, who was bom 11th July, 1863,
died 2nd May, 1880. George, the youngest son living, is at home, and manages the
farm, and Frances A. assists her mother in the domestic duties "of the homestead.
DANIEL SHOWERS, one of the old pioueers of Brant County, was bom in
Dundas, Ontario, January 31, 1806, and is a son of John and Catharine Showers, the
former of whom was bom in Canada, and died in Brant County ; in 1845 the latter
680 HlBfOKV OF BKAST COCSTY.
was bom in the United States, and died (Jbo in Brant County, in 1865 ; they weto
married in Canada, where Mr. Showers earned on n farm and a distiller;. Danid
Showers, whose biography we write, was iiiarried, Kebniary 14, K'29, to Alice Sayles,
a native of-Uukland Township, Brant County. She was bom February 9, 1811, died
September 4, 1833, and was a daughter of Thomas fuid Bertha Sayles. She was ao
adherent of the Baptirt Church, her hiiaband being a member of the Methodist body.
Theii family consisted of two children, one living, named Alice, wife of Francis Pickle,
She was bora Ap|ii 9, 1833 ; 'Iliomas was bom July 22, 1835, died Sept. 4, same yew.
Mr. Showera came into Brant County long before there were any buildings in Paris,
excepting two dwelling houses. This was in the year 1826. and he haa lived ever
since within three miles of Paris, and carried on farming operations with every sncceaa.
DR. A. J. SINCLAIR, P^aris, was bom at St Thomas, Ontario, July 25, 1847, and
is a BOQ of the late Donald and Jane Sinclair, who came to Canada from Arsyleehire,
Scotland, in 1831, and suttled, for the remainder of their days, in Yaraiouth, Township
ofYarmouth,CouQty of Elgin, Ontario, The father, who followed the occupation of farm-
ing during life, died in 1S72, and the mother on July 12, 1882. De. A. J. Sinclair, our
subject, was united in marriage, June 6, 1877, with Amelia, daughter of Capt A. Mc-
Bride, natives of Scotland. The Doctor acquired a thorough grammar school education,
and underwentafouryears' training, in medicine and surgery at Trinity Collie, Toronto.
He finished his course in 1875 and in that year c^mmencod practice in Paris, when
he now reaides.
ADAM C. SMITH, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in Brant
County, 12th April, 1637. His father, James Y., was a native of New Hampsfain,
where he was born I6ch February, 1790, and died 22nd February, 1867, and his
mother, Mary (Cleraons). was bom 23rd March, 1797, and died 25th November, 1877.
They were married in New York State, 24th March, 1816, and emigrated to Canada
about the year 1825, settling in the County of Waterloo, Ontario, where they remained
for about fifteen years, when they moved into Brant County, which tbey made their
final home in Canada. Mr. James Y. Smith was a carder by trade, but commenced
agricultural pursuits after settling in Brant County. Adam C., our subject, married,
8th February, 1869, Mary Sullivan, who was born in Toronto in 1850. She is a
daughter of John and Mary Sullivan. To Mr. and M rs. Smith, who are members of
the Canada Methodist Church, have been bom three children — Mary A., bom IStli
November, 1870 ; Elvira M., bom 20th July, 1872 ; and William S., bom 18th March,
1874. Mr. Smith has been engaged in farming all his life, and is now residing with
his family on the old home farm, consistiug of 1 80 acres, situated two and a half miles
from Paris, in the Township uf South Dumftict!, and has been very successfid in his
vocation.
JOH.V HENRY SMITH, farmer, St. George P.O., was bom May 3rd, 1840, in
Wentwurth County, and was married, September 19, 1861, to Roxanna, daughter of
Abraham and Deborah VanSickle, of Durafriea Towuship. Abraham VauSickle was
bom on the 5th day of December, 1805, in 'Ancaster Township. His father, Isaac
VanSickle, came to Canada from the Sbite of New Jersey, in the year 1801, and settled
in Ancaster, in what is now known as the Jersey Settlement. It wus then a howling
._:ij . .u. e .„ -i-^oj ill their primeval grandeuj-, with scarcely a settler within
Isaac VanSickle died in July, 1830. Mr. Abraham Van-
24, 1826, to Deborah Drake, daughtei of David and Tem-
e to the Jeraey Settlement in 1801, from the State of New
married in the year 1797, Mr^ and Mrs. VanSickle won
iren — Boxanna, Elizabeth, and David. Elizabeth was bwn
married, Fehmary 28, 1896, to ,James Popple, of Brantford
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 681
Township ; David was bom July 20, 1838, and was married to Minerva, daughter of
Henry and Charlotte Hawley, of Dumfries ; Roxanna was married, September 19,
1861, to John Henry Smith, and is residing on the homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
have been blessed, with seven children, five of whom are living. Their ^names are
Melvin Masten, Milton, Marshall, Cynthia, Ann, and Arthur A. They are all mem-
bers of the Baptist Church, of which Mr. Smith is a Deacon. The names of the
deceased children are £lizabeth L. Masten, and Minerva Alberta Smith. Mr. Smith
has been fairly successful in life, and has a nice homa
SIMON SMITH, farmer, Harrisbnrg P.O., was bom Febraary 6, 1849, and is a son
of Simon and Mary Smith. Simon Smith, Senr., was bom June 4, 1808, in Jeisey
Settlement, Wentworth County, Ontario. He was married, January 28, 1835, to
Mary, daughter of Joseph and Christina Shuert; »he was bom near Chippewa,
WeUand Coimty, Cctober 15, 1810. Mr. Smith, Senr. came into Dumfries Town-
ship with his parents about the year 1833, and settled two miles north of St. George.
After his marriage he located on Lot 4, Ist concession of South Dumfries. He and Mrs.
Smith were the parents of seven children, aU of whom are living. Their names and
the dates of their birth are as follows : Henry, bom December 5, 1835 ; Harvey^
December 9, 1838 ; Cynthia, July 5, 1840 ; Orpha, December 25, 1843 ; Alfred, June
27, 1846 ; Simon, February 6, 1849 ; and Lavinia, October 16, 1851. Mr. Simon
Smith, Senr., died on the 1st of May, 1880 ; Mrs. Smith is still living, hale and hearty.
Mr. Simon Smith, Junr., was married, August 6, 1879, to Eve Eliza Bristol, daughter
of Joel and Eachel Bristol, of Guelph. They are the parents of two children, named
George William, bom August 24, 1880; and Charles Edwin, born July 8, 1882.
Alfred Smith was married, December 11, 1878, to Julia Isabella, daughter of Charles
and Mary Nixon, of South Dumfries. They have two children : Florence Louise, bom
March 24, 1880 ; and Emily Frances, bom July 6, 1881. Harvey Smith is marriedtand
living at Colchester, Essex County, Ontario ; Cynthia married Samuel McLaughlin, of
Brantford Township ; Orpha is the wife of Nelson Fonger, Brantford Township ; Heiiryr
Smith, the oldest son, was married, December 8, 1859; Sarah, daughter of George
Muma, of Dumfries, became his wife ; and Miss Lavinia Smith was married to Walter
Shaver, of Woodstock. The Smith family are members of the Methodist Church, of
which Mr. Smith, Senr., was a leader for fifteen years prior to his death. The family
acquired an ordinary rural school education, but have evidently made the best pos-
sible use of it. A thrilling incident is related of Elizabeth Smith, the grandmother
of the family. It is as follows : About the beginning of the present century she resided
near the shore of Niagara River, in the vicinity of Chippewa. One morning, as she
stood looking across the river, she observe*! a boat with two occupants going down the
river ; they showed signs of distress, and Mis. Smith, who was an excellent oarswoman,
immediately jumped into a boat and pulled to the rescue. As she approached them
she perceived what the difficulty was ; one of their oars had broken, and they were at
the mercy of the rapids. She pulled her boat close to theirs, and assisted them into
hers, making thera lie quietly in the bottom ; they were both the worse of liquor.
Mrs. Smith had a fearful struggle, but she regained the shore, about half a mile below
the place from which she started. Th(»8e she saved heaped .eternal blessings on her head,
so grateful were they for the noble way in which she had come to their rescue.
WILLIAM SMITH, carpenter, Paris, is one of the old pioneers of this town,
having arrived in it in 1851, when there existed but one little shanty on the " flats,"
and two wooden bridges were standing where the iron bridge now is. Mr. Smith
was bom in Scotland on March 22, 1833, and is a son of George and Anna Smith,
both natives of the same country, where they married and lived the rest of their lives.
William, our subject, in settling in Paris, at once engaged in the business of carpen-
41
682 H18TOKY OF BKANT COUNTY.
tering, and married Jane Dixon, who was also bom in Scotland in 1833 ; she was a
daughter of William Dixon, and ia a member of the Presbyterian Chnrch. There have
been bom to them a family of four children, of whom three survive, viz., William D.,
Anna 0. and Helen D. Mr. Smith, who received a good common school education, has
been successful in life, and, with hb family, is much respected by all who know them.
ROBEKT SNOWBALL, farmer, St. Geor^ P.O., was bom in the Village of Sinnmg-
ton, North Riding of York, England, Aug. 27, 1811. He was the son of John ai^
Jane Snowball His father was bom in the north of Yorkshire in 1782, and died
April 17, 1856 ; his mother was bom in Easingwold, England, in 1787, and died Ifay
19, 1864 ; neither of them ev^er came to Canada. Rol»ert Snowball, the subject of
onr sketch, arrived in Canada on the 28th July, 1830. He remained in Little Yoxk,
now Toronto, until Dec. 13, when he came west as far as Palermo, Halton County ; in
1834 he left there and settled in Dumfries, in what was then known as Boa]auji;h's
Mills, but now called 8t Geoige. On the Ist Dec, 1831, he was married to Elisa
Skinner, of Hal ton County. She died Feb. 27, 1838, aged 26 yean. By his fiist wife
Mr. Snowball bad three'^ildren, one of whom still survives — ^William, bom Joly 11,
1834 ; the deceased are John, bom Jan. 16, 1836, died Aug. 29, 1837 ; and Robot,
bora Jan. 4, 1838, died March 29, 1838. On the 7th June, 1839, Mr. Snowball was
married to Bachel, daughter of John and Martha Buckbeny, of Dumfries Townshipu
They came to this township about the year 1821 from the County of Wentworth. By
his second wife he had five children, three of whom are living, viz., Samuel, bom April
29, 1841 ; Robert, Aug. 21, 1844 ; and James, Dec 3, 1848. The two children
deceased died Tcry young. Mr. and Mrs. Snowball are members of the Wealeyan
Methodist Church, and he has held various important offices in the chureh. He received
an ordinary education, and has been pretty successful in business. Having bought when
he first came here, he now owns 137 acres of improved land, part of the Village of
St. Oeorge being located on it. In 1833 Mr. Snowball built the fitst carriage and
waggon shop in ihis part of the county. He has been a Magistrate for four yean, and
is highly respected bv all who know him.
LEONARD A. SOVEREIGX, retired farmer, Parifi, was bom in the County of
Norfolk, Ontario, on 29th Dec., 1825. and is a son of William and Diana (Bloomfield)
Sovereign. The former, who was eugag«rd in farming through life, was beam in Penn-
sylvania March 28, 1791, died March 12, 1868 ; the latter was bom in Geneeaee Ga,
N.T^ Dec. 23, 1795, died Jan. 2, 1867. They were married in Norfolk Ca, Out, April
25, 1819, he coming into Canada and settling in Norfolk Co. in 1799, where tliey
both remained until 1834, when they removed to Brant County for the remainder it
their lives. Leonard, the subject of our sketch, lived with his parents up to the time
of their death, and came to Paris in 1876. He had a good, sound common adiool
education, and has been engaged in farming most of his lifetime, and met with success.
He is a Justice of the Peace, and has filled the office of Councillor for South Dumfries.
He had three brothere and four fdsters, of whom three are living — Mary, Eliia ard
Jane ; and the names of the deceased are Horace, Jeremiah, David and Levina.
ALEXANDER SPOTTISWOODE (deceased) was a resident of South Damfries
Township at the time of his death, which occurred November 4, 1876. He was a
native of Stirlingshire, Scotland, where he was bom Mareh 17, 1817, and emigrated
to Canada about the year 1832, settling first at Windsor, Ont, where he remained
two years. He then moved to Ambertsburgh, Essex County, and losing his health
there, returned to Scotland for a short visit Agdin arriving in the land of his adop>
tion, he tried his fortune in the Town of Brantford, engaging in business for a few
}eai8 with a Mr. Roy. In course of time Mr. Spottiswoode entered into the genend
store business in the Town of Pkiris, and went into the manufiM^nre of plaster of Paris.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 68$
He was for a number of years one of the lai^gest basiness men in Paris, and in 1857
he moveJ into South Dumfries, where he remained tiil his death. Mr. and Mrs.
Spottiswoode were married January 7, 1847. She was a Miss Catharine Latshaw,
born in Waterloo Village, Ont., March 25, 1822, and is a member of tbe Baptist
Church. Mr. Spottiswoode, who was educated in Scotland, took an active part duriug
life in the politics of the country, ranking himself as a firm supporter of the Reform
party. He held the office of Justice of the Peace, and was a most useful member of the
community in which he lived. To Mr. and Mrs. Spottiswoode were bom six children,
of whom five are now living — Joseph A., Claia L., Samuel R, Hattie and Isabella
B. Mary K., who was born July 1, 1851, died July 9, 1879 ; she received her
education at Hamilton, State of New York.
G£ORGE STANTON, Postmaster, Paris, is one of the old pioneers of Brant
County, having settled there as early as 1831, making St (George his first abiding
pla ce, from which he moved to Paris, where he has resided ever since. Mr. Stanton
wa8 born in Quebec, on March 13, 1804, and is a son of William and Margaret
Stanton, the former of whom was bom in Staffordshire, England, on October 4, 1756,
and the latter whs bom at St John, Province of Quebec, on May 15, 1775. They
were married in St John on Nov. 19, 1791, and settled in Toronto (then called York
Town) in 1805, then removed to Fort Erie, thence to Amherstburgh, where Mr.
Stanton died on June 12, 1833 ; Mrs. Stanton died at Fort Erie on June 19, 1820.
In 1812 Mr. Stanton was appointed Assistant Commissary-General, which commis-
sion he held up to the day of his death. The subject of our sketch, George Stanton^
was united in marriage on November 19, 1835, to Sarah YanEvery, who was born in
Flamboro' West on April 5, 1814 ; they are both members of the Church of England.
Their family consisted of thirteen children, of whom six survive, viz., William, Fannis^
C^rge, Mary, Sarah and Allan N. Their eldest daughter, Margaret (now deceased),-
was the wife of James Zimmerman, Esq., and was bom August 15, 1836, died June
5, 1880. Mr. Stanton, who acquired a grammar school education, commencing at
the late Dr. Strachan's school, Toronto, in 1812, is the oldest Justice of the Peace in
Brant County. He filled the office of Town Councillor for two sessions, and is Colonel
of the 4th Battalion of Brant Militia. In 1837 he raised a company of Yolunteeis
at St. G^rge, and served under Allan McNab during the Rebellion. In 1833 he
was appointed Postmaster at St. George, and subsequently at Paris in 1860, a posi-
tion he still holds. While a resident nf St Creorge he was engaged in mercantile
business, besides operating a grist mill, a distillery and a farm. He gave the Yillage
of St George its name, at the suggestion of a Mrs. Sarah Barmonr, long since deceased.
It can be faithfully recorded that no one can be more highly respected in the com-
munity in which they live than Mr. George Stanton and his family.
WILLIAM TEL FEB, farmer. Township of South Dumfries, was bom in Scotland
14th February, 1830, and is a son of the late William Telfer, also a native of Scotland,
who emigiated to Canada in 1845, settling in South Dumfries Township. Mr. Telfer,
Sr., died December 20, 1880, but Mrs. Telfer is still living in Paris, Ont William,
our subject, was united in marriage, 15th April, 1858, with Elizabeth McPherson, who
was bom in Halton County, Ont, 2nd March, 1828 ; she is a daughter of the late
Duncan McPherson, of South Dumfries.
SYDNEY THOMAS, farmer, St George P.O., was bom August 15, 1836, and is
a son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Thomas. Mr. Jonathan Thomas was born near
Rutland, in the State of Yermont, May 23, 1793, and died September 29, 1860, aged
67 years, 4 months, 6 days ; Mrs. Thomas was bom in Niagara County, York State, in
the year 1796, died April 25, 1869, aged 72 years, 3 months and 29 days. They came
to Canada about the year 1815, and settled near St. Catharines ; three years later
684 HISTORY or BKANT COLSTl-.
thef moved west into Dumfkiee, and settled on Lot 13. 1st concesaion, whete Sydoey
Thomas now lives. The lajid was purchased from the Hon. Wm, Dickson, who owned
the whole townahip.' They were the parents of eleven children, four of whom are
atill living. Mrs. Thomas died April 25, 1869. Mr, Sydney Thomas, the yooiif^t
son, is now in the homesteiid. He whs married, December 24, 1863, to Reb^;ca Ade-
line, daughter of James and Ssrah Jane Fotroff, of iSinbrook, Wentworth County.
They have been blessed with seven children, all of whom are living. Their namea and
«ge8, according to seniority, are as follows : James 8., born December 21, 1864 ; Frank
W., bom January 2, 1867; Geoi^e W., Pebruary 24, 1869 ; Charles K, April 11,
1871 ; Elizabeth Ada, September IG, 1673 ; Mary Mand, Jnne 23, 1876 ; and William
J., February 20, 1879. They attend the Methodist Chnrch. Mr. Thomas received a
common school education, and has made good use of it. He has 248} acres of improved
land in his farm.
ROBERT WALL, farmer, Dumfries Township, was bom in Somersetshire, Eng-
land, on January 19tli, 1840, and is a sod of John aad Caroline Wall, both natives of
England. The former, who was engaged in farming all his life, was born Jan. 16Ui,
1814, and the latter on Christmas Day, 1819. They were married in England, and
emigrated to Canada in 1848, whure they have since remained, principally in Brant
County. Robert, our subject, was married, in 1866, April lOth, to Elliza Jane Ash,
who was bom in Ireland on 30th Oct., 1842, and is a daughter of William T. and
Alice M. M. Ash. lk>tli are members of the Wesleyan Methodist body, and have
had a family of seven children, of whom there survive five, viz., Anna,- Emma, Edwin,
William Thomiis, and Charles. Mr. Wall acquired but a comparatively limited
education, but by industry and integrity has built himself up a U)mfortable home,
with an ownership of 187 acres of well improved land, on which he resides.
JOHN WESTWOOD, faraier, Township of South Dumfries, was bora 28th July,
1850, and is a son of Thomas and Mary Westwood, the former of whom was a native
of the State of New York, where he was bom 25th Jan. 1813, and whose parents
were John and Eleanor Westwood. The elder emigrated to New York, from Leeds,
Yorkshire, England, and from New York State he came to Canada in 1822, a&d
settled neat Beaver Dams, in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, where they resided about
two years. In 1824 they moved west, and located on Lot 10, con. 1 of South
Dumfries, where he taught the first school in the neighbourhood, uid where his
•on Thomas lives at present Here the elder Mr. Westwood died 5th September,
1833, and his widow on the 18th March, 1846. John Westwood was married in
October, 1874, to Alice, daughter of Samuel Armstrong, who is at present in
Michigan, and by her has one child, Maud Alice, bom 1th July, 1876. ThtHuu
Westwood was married, 2nd July, 1846, to Mary, daughter of John and Doro^y
Kitchen, of Dumfries Township, and to this union have been bom five children, of
whom four survive, viz., Dorodiy, John, married to Alice, daughter of Samuel Arm-
strong, of Dumfries ; Harvey, married to Elizabeth Campbell, of Branlford Town-
.!.;„ .»J J.„„k.— ^t Awi.!!^]^ '^—pbeU; and David Nathan (deceased) was bom
^6. Mrs. Thomas Westwood died ^Ifovembv
Westwood's brother, Samuel, who is three years
ided with him, and is still making his reaidenw
'estwood family are members of the Methodist
an active interest. He received the rudiments
1, and has been suocessfol in life. At present
iroved land. In 1862, the skeletons of fifteen
n, and io 1878, twenty-six more, evidently
urying-ground.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 685
HUGH WHIT£, fanner, township of South Dumfries, was bom in that township
21st June, 1827, and is the son of Thomas and Mary (Harvie) White, natives of Scot-
land. His mother emi^i^t^ted with her parents to the United States in 1811, and from
there to Canada in 1817. His father first emigrated to the States with his brother
about ihe year 1824, and moved shortly afterwards into Canada. He walked th^
greater part of the journey, driving a yoke of oxen, with a cart loaded with sundry
articles essential to pioneering purposes, such as a plough, axe, chains, etc He first
settled in North Dumfries, and was married in Canada to Mary Harvie, in 1826,
Squire Ellis performing the marriage ceremony. They remained in North Dumfries a
great many years, and in 1844 moved into South Dumfries, where tliey ended their
days. The father, who had been a farmer through life, died 7th Dec, 1870, aged 74,
and the mother died 19th January, 1868, aged 78. Hugh White, our subject, was
married 11th March, 1858, to Janet Wallace, daughter of James and Janet Wallace,
and bom 7th April, 1833. Mr. and Mrs. White are members of the Presbyterian
Church, and are the parents of six children, five of whom survive viz., Thomas,
Mary, James W., Janet W. and Henrietta ; the deceased, Hugh, died in infancy. Mr.
White filled the o^ce of School Trustee for several years, and has met with marked
success in his farming operations. He and his wife and family i*eside on the old home
farm, consisting of 450 actes. He possesses in all 870 acres of land, nearly all under
cultivation, with excellent buildings.
JOHN WILSON (d<Hseased), who for a quarter of a century was one of the most
prosperous farmers in South Dumfries, was a native of Aryshire, Scotland, where he
was bom in 1805. His parents were John and Elizabeth A. Wilson, who lived and
died in the ** land of the mountain and the flood." John Wilson married, about the
year 1836, Susan Howell, daughter of Nathan and Susan Howell, who were natives of
the United States, and who emigrated to Canada and settled in Copetown, near Flam-
boro', Ontario. Mrs. Wilson, who was bom 17th July, 1817, is a member of the Pres-
byterian Church, of which her husband was also an adherent. Mr. Wilson settled on
the home farm in 1837, where he remained up to the time of his death, which occurred
1st May, 1861. When he first moved into South Dumfries Township he bought the
100 acres where his widow and family now reside. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson had a familv
of eight children, of whom four are now living, viz., Robert C, Ogden (in British
Columbia), Elizabeth A., and Elliott, who lives in Paris. The deceased are Durlty, Mary,
Rachel and John H. Robert 0. manages the farm, and Elizabeth assists in the
management of the house. Mr. Wilson, by his exemplary industry and integrity, always
developed success out of his undertakings ; and when he left this world, his family lost
a kind and affectionate husband and father, and the community a useful and good
citizen.
W. B. WOOD & D. BEATTIE WOOD, proprietors of the St. George and Woodvale
Flouring MiUs, as well as the saw mill, are sons of Alexander and Ann Wood, natives
of Scotland, who emigrated to Canada in 1853, and who are still living. Mr. Wood, 8r.,
is a retired farmer, having been for the greater part of his life engaged in agricultural
pursuits. W. B. Wood was bom in 1848, and in 1872 married Ellen Malcolmson, a
Canadian by birth ; they have a family of three, viz.. Maggie, Nellie and Alexander.
He has been for the past two years a member of the Dumfries Township Council, and
is also a member of the Masonic Fraternity, as well as an office-bearer in the Presby-
terian Church. D. Beattie Wood was bora 22nd August, 1858, and was united in
marriage with Frances Clark, 17th May, 1882. The two brothers, who both enjoyed
a good common school training, are, together with their families and parents, members
of the Presbyterian Church. They have been partners in the milling business for about
three years, and have met with considerable success. W. B. Wood became the owner
686 HISTORY OF BRANT COUNTY.
of the Woodvale Mills in 1876, and did a good business in tbem alone nntil 1880^
when the fine three-story 8tone mill was purchased, and the partnership between the
brothers entered into. The ml Is are driven by first-class never-failing water-power^
and this, in addition to their situation in a splendid wheat section, and their proximity to
the railway station, makes the property very valuable. If industry, intet^rity, and good
business ability are guarantees of success, W. Bm Wood and D. B^ttie Wood are on the
safe road to pro8|)erity.
TUSCARORA TOWNSHIP.
BENJAMIN CARPENTER, teacher, Newport P.O., is a son of Abram and Hannah
(Adams) Carpenter, and was bom March 26, 1832. His boyhood days were spent in
Brantford Township. He received a good education at the Mohawk Institute, and is
now engaged in teschinpr, for which profession he is well fitted. He has a farm of 85
acres, is Chief of the Cayugas, a member of the Methodist Church of Canada, and an
influential Indian in his tribe.
HENRY CLINCH, farmer, Ohsweken P.O., is a son of Joseph and Catherine (Green)
Clinch, natives of Canada, who were bom and raised in Onondaga Township. He is a
Chief of the Oneida tribe of Indians, and was married, in 1849, to Miss Ellen Hess, by
whom he has had six children, viz., Amos, Joseph, Catherine, Louisa, John and Charles.
Amos married Miss Elizabeth Cross ; Joseph married Miss Mary Grear; Louisa married
Mr. James Garlow; and all are living in Tuscarora Township. Mr. Clinch has a good
farm, and is one of the aost industrious Indians in the reservation. He belongs to the
Wesleyan M. R Church.
. JACOB DAVIS, farmer, BurtchP.O., is a son of Lawrence and Esther Davis,
natives of Canada, and members of the Mohawk tribe of Indians. Jacob Davis, the
subject of this sketch, was bom in March, 1826, and in 1848 was married to Miss
Catherine Hill, daughter of Abram Hill. They have the following children living,
viz., Mary, John, Lawrence, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph and Francis. All are good scholars,
and all have had good school privileges. His farm consists of 200 acres of good land,,
a greater part of which is being tilled. He is a member of the Church of England,
and is one of the Cayuga tribe of Indians.
DR ROBERT HILL DEE, Tuscarora, Township of Onondaga, County of Brant, was
bom at Stamford, County of Welland, July 24, 1829, and is a son of Deputy Assistant
Commissary and Elizabeth Dee, both natives of England. Dr. Robert Hill Dee was
educated at Stamford, and was taught Latin and Euclid by the late Rev. Dr. Russell
(Presbyterian minister). He obtained his degree of M.D. from the University of
Buiialo, State of New York, in Feb., 1852, and passed the old Medical Board, of which
Dr. Widmer was chairman, in April, 1852, his studies having been followed under Dr.
F. C. Mewbum, at Drummondville, near Niagara Falls, Ont The Doctor commenced
practice in June, 1852, at what is now known as the Village of Selkirk, on Lake Erie,
County of Haldiniand, Ont In Dec., 1853, he came to Middleport, County of Brant,
since which time he has been physician to the Indians of Tuscarora Township, and until
1867 he also had an extensive practice among the whites of Onondaga Township. Dr.
Dee's experience with the early settlers, bad roads, ^.*, of the county, have been per-
haps greater and more varied than that of any other physician, and we are indebted
to him for notes relative to the Indian Settlement which will be found in another pari
of this history.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 687
JOHN HILL, farmer and merchant, Ohsweken P.O., is a son of Ihomas and
Elizabeth (Dixon) Hill, natives of Canada. He was married, May 24th, 1853, to Miss
MaryXoft. Their children were six in number, viz.: Albert E., David, Robert,
Enos, Thomas E. and Hilton. His father was Thomas Echo Hill ; he was bom in
York State, and came to this country with the first settlers. He is a Chief of the
iSeneca Indians. His wife is a Baptist in belief, while he attends the Plymouth
<Jhurch. His children are all attending school ; Robert and Enos attend the Mohawk
Institute ; Albert's aim is to be a miller. Mr. Hill keeps a general store at the Council
House, and is a substantial citizen of the reservation.
JOSIAH HILL, farmer, Ohsweken P.O., was bom October 22, 1843 ; he is a son
of Abraham and Mary (Longfish) Hill, natives of the State of New York, who were
Among the first settlers of Tuscarora Township. Abraham Hill's father, after whom
Whiteman's Creek was named, took an active part in the Revolutionary War, and
afterward located on Whiteman's Creek, in this county, where Abraham was bom in
1805. Josiah and Richard Hill are the only survivors of their Other's family of five
children. Josiah is a Chief of the Tuscarora Indians^ and in April, 1864, married
Nancy, daughter of Jacob HilL To this union four children were bom, viz.: Simeon,
vho is preparing himself for the ministry at the Mohawk Institute ; Amelia, Leopold
and John Starr. The latter was named after John Starr, Esq., of Ohio, the writer of
this biography, and a representative of the publishers of this work. The subject of
this sketch is a well-informed and intelligent gentleman, who watches with great pleas-
ure the progress his race is making in their upward march to civilization and Chris-
tianization. He is a prosperous &urmer of much natural ability, and a worthy member
of his tribe. He is a Baptist in belief.
DAVID JAMIESON, farmer, Hartford P.O., is a son of James Jamieson, a native
of Canada, bom on Whiteman's Creek. He was married to Susannah Longfish, and
they were blessed with six children, ^ve of whom are still living, viz., Wilson, Eunice,
Harlow, Annie and Nancy. They are all members of the Baptist Church. They have a
farm near Hagersville, Haldimand County, of 200 acres of good land. Mr. Jamieson is
one of those fair, honourable Indians, of whom there are many in Tuscarora Township.
G. H. M. JOHNSON, Tuscarora, Chiefs Wood, Ontario, T'oiinty of Brant, was bom
near Brantford, Ontario, on the farm known as Bow Park, October 7, 1819 ; he was
a son of John Johnson, and a grandson of Sir WiUiam Johnson, the first English officer
and Superintendent of the Six Nation Indians, who were then in the United States.
The mother of our subject was Heleu Martin. She was tlie mother of six children,
viz., Joseph, William, Margaret, Aaron, Susannah and O. H. M. The subject of tbis
sketch was married August 27, 1853, to Miss Emiiy Susannah Howells, daughter of
Henry and Maty (Best) Howells, natives of Bristol, England. Her father emigrated
to America and settled in Ohio, where he remained until his death. By his mamage
Mr. Johnson has had four children, \iz.^ Henry B., now a i-esident of Hamilton ;
Helen C. Eliza, Allen W. and Emily Pauline, all meiubers of the Church of England.
Chief Johnson is a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and for a number of years
acted as an inter|)reter for some of the first missionaries amon^ the Indians. He tells
many quaint and interesting stories of the manners and traditions of his people, and
has a great number of relics and curiosities, which he has gathered during a lifetime of
usefulness. Among the latter might be mentioned an idol which was taken from one
of the temples of the Indians, when they were pagans, and a knife which was fouud by
digging at the roots of a tree, where a conscience-stricken murderer, ninety years of age,
confessed to have placed it more than seventy years before, and at the time he com-
mitted the crime. A visit to the chief is always amply repaid by the interesting facts
and sights that the visitor there enjoys^
688 HISTOEY OF BBAHt COUNTT.
GEORGE ALEXANDER MAETIN, farmer, Newport, a native of diw coBntf,
WH bom in Onondaga Tovnship, July 1, 1857, and is a eon of Alexander and Ere
(Hill) Martin, and a grandson of Peter and Ljdia (Loft) Martin, all of the Six
Nation Indiana, He married, October 31, 1881, Elixabetb Agnes Miller, daughter of
Anthony and Sarah (Doitader) Miller, and granddanghter of Anthony and Cathenne
Miller, of French descent. They have one child — Emma Amelia, bom July 26, 1863.
The subject of this sketch is a gi-aduate of Mohawk Inetitnte, which he att-'Uded four
years, and taught echoul in the Indian Beservation, TuBCarora Township, for two and
a half years. He was Secretary of the Six Nation's Agricultural Society for the yeara
1881-1882. He farms 98 acres in Tuscarora, and is succeeding fairly. He is a mem-
ber of the Orange Order, and slso of the Church of England. Mr. Martin is »
nephew of Dr. Uionhytekha, one of the most talented Indians of the Six Nations,
who is a member of the Masonic, Foresters, Maccabeen, and Good Templar Fratomi-
tie*, and widely known and respected on the Continent of America.
JOHN F. MAUTIN, farmer, Hartford P.O., is a son of Simeon and Dom
(Longfish) Martin, and was bom May 24, 1852. He was married in 1871 to Mra.
Russell, a widow having five children when he married her, viz., Joseph, Claibonme,
Wilson, John and Sarah. The children of the second union were five in number, vie,
Andrew, Francis, Eliza, Nellie and Ella. They are connected with the Baptist Church.
Mr. Martin has ISO acres of good land, is one of the Committee of Arrangements of the
Six Nation Indians' Agricultural Society, and one of the substantia] TniHana of the
township.
PETER MILLER, farmer, Ohsweken P.O., waa a son of Anthony and Catherine
(Martin) Miller, natives of Lower Canada, bom December 23, 1838. He was married
April 17, 1864, to Jemima Clause, of Quinte Reservarion. His family consists (rf
eight children, viz., Angeline M., William, Joshua M., Francis, Jemima, Catherine,
Emma and Robert, all living at home. His father was in the army at the time of
the Rebellion of I837-1S38. He lives in the Township of Tuscaroia, has 100 acrea of
land, and is among the thrifty and industrious Indians of the township. He received
a good common school education, mostly at the White School. They are members of
the Church of England and of the Mohawk tribe of Indians. Mr. Miller has a good
form, and is making rapid and steady progreas as a farmer. He contemplates improving
his place still further.
GEORGE POWLESS, farmer, Tuscarora P.O., is a son of George and Elisabeth
(Martin) Powless, of Canada, bom in the county. He b living on the upper part of
the reserve, near to and opposite Middleport, on the Grand River, Toscarois Town-
ship, and WIS bom March 23, 1851. He was married, on November 26, 1873, to a
daughter of Nelson Martin, of Bay of Quinte. His family consiste of six children,
three living, viz., Edwin P. E., Tilinnie L. H. and Cyril N. His education and that
of his wife were received at the Mohawk Inatitute. He has taught school for seven
or eight years, and has now began to build upon a piece of laud of 50 acres on the
banks of the Grand River, on a splendid site for a beautiful residence. He and his
}rs of the Church of England, and descendants of Captain Brant,
SSS, farmer, Ohsweken P.O., was a eon of Peter and Esther
, the former of whom waa, in the War of 1612, a Chief of the
Peter, Junr., was bom June 10, 1844, and was married to Miss
, by whom he has had four children, viz., Isaac, Elizabeth, Pet«r
Powless, Junr., is a Chief of the Mohawk Indians, and a member
;land, as were all his pn^nitora.
K SMITH, interpreter for StPaul's Church, Keroyengah, Newport
^rge Smith, and was bom on April 15, 1849. He waa married.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 689
\
in 1871, to Miss Mary Wage. Mr. Smith is interpreter for the St. Paul's Church of
England, Kemyengah, under the employ of the New Enp^land Company, near the
famous Sour Springs. He is also a Chief of the Mohawks. He is one of those men
whose desire for education ran so high as to induce him, at the age of 13 yeara, to apply
to a friend of the Indians, Rev. Canon Nelles, for a position in the Mohawk Institute,
which he obtained, and from time to time was promoted until he received a good edu-
cation. His family consists of six children, viz., Charlotte, Henrietta, Mary L., Lily
N., Alexander, G. E. They are members of the Church of England.
WILLIAM SMITH, farmer, and Chief of the Mohawks, Burtch P.O., was a son of
Aaron and Deborah (Johnson) Smith ; his mother was of the Mohawk tribe, his father
of the Oneidas. William Smith, Jr., was born June 22, 1841, in the Johnson Settle-
ment, near Brantford, and was married September 3, 1864, to Miss Charlotte Miller,
daughter of Anthony Miller. They have seven children living : Mary Sophia, born
July 7, 1865; William, born Aug. 22, 1867; Charles Frederick, died Dec. 3, 1874;
James, bom Oct. 23, 1872; Elijah, born Feb. 8, 1875, died July 27, 1876; Alfred
George, bom June 25, 1877; Frederick S., bom Dec. 28, 1879; Minnie Gertrude and
Edwin, born Jan. 22, 1883. Mr. Smith is a Chi^f of the Mohawks by adoption, and
President of the Agricultural Society of the Six Nation Indians. He is a member of
the Church of EngWnd. He has 300 acres of land under the best cultivation. His
education was obtained at the Mohawk Institute, and he is one of Tuscarora's best
citizens.
WILLIAM WEDGE, County Constable and Bailiflf of the Indian Forest, Ohsweken
P.O., is a son of William and Catherine Wedge, natives of Canada, and is one of the
(Jhiefs of the Cayuga tribe of Indians. He is also Bailiff of the Indian Forest, and
Constable of the county. He was born July 12, 1828, and was married in Aug., 1858,
to Miss Catherine Jamieson. They have one child, Ellen, who was married to James
Bamberly, and has a family of two children. Mr. Wedge is a member of the Church
of England. He owns a farm of 100 acres.
i
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